Robinson Saves Wimbledon's Blushes With Late Equaliser

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Wimbledon 1 v Coventry 1

Wimbledon scored an injury-time equaliser for the second time four days as they avoided an embarrassing home defeat against basement club Coventry City on Tuesday (14 February).

Whereas it was Tom Elliott on Saturday against Charlton, this time it was centre back Paul Robinson who converted from close range when defeat seemed inevitable – but his goal couldn’t mask another disappointing display from the Dons.

Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley told DonsPlayer: ‘We were poor and I can’t like and I can’t make excuses.

‘We normally have a habit of getting our fans going when we’re at home and it was hard for them to cheer too much tonight, because we never really gave them much to scream and shout about.

‘We kept going until the end ... but we do need to play better and we’re not in a good place at the moment.’

The match had a low-key start until Coventry forced a succession of corners soon after the quarter-hour mark, but it was Wimbledon who enjoyed the majority of the possession throughout, although rarely threatening a breakthrough.

It wasn’t until midway through the first-half that the Dons had their first notable chance, with Tom Soares forcing a save out of Coventry goalkeeper Lee Burge, with Robinson heading over the resultant corner.

In the second period, out-of-form Lyle Taylor headed a free-kick over after substitute David Fitzpatrick had been fouled, but still Wimbledon were struggling to force Burge into action.

And with a growing sense of the almost inevitable, Coventry took the lead during a rare forward foray with a little under 20 minutes remaining. Jodi Jones was given time to run forward and then cut inside Sean Kelly, his shot squeezing into the gap between Chris Robertson and James Shea and into the far side of the netting.

Desperate Wimbledon withdrew the pace of Taylor and Dom Poleon in place of the more physical presence of Tyrone Barnett and George Oakley, but both struggled to make an impression as it increasingly looked that the Dons would sink to defeat.

But then in injury time Andy Barcham cut in from the left and delivered a low cross. Although Barnett’s effort was blocked, it fell to Robinson who hooked home to save Wimbledon’s blushes.

The Dons will be hoping for more productive performances as they travel to first Shrewsbury Town (Saturday 18 February) and Gillingham (Tuesday 22 February) in coming matches.

Wimbledon: Shea, Francomb, Robertson, Robinson, Kelly, Soares, Bulman (Fitzpatrick 45), Reeves, Poleon (Oakley 73), Taylor (Barnett 73), Barcham. Subs not used: McDonnell, Egan, Owens, Sibbick.

Goalscorer: Robinson 93.

Coventry: Burge, Kelly-Evans, Rawson, N. Clarke, Turnbull, Foley, G. Thomas (Jones 69), Reilly, Rose, Thomas, Tudgay (Yakubu 61). Subs not used: Bigirimana, Lameiras, Reid, Charles-Cook, Haynes.

Goalscorer: Jones 71.

Att: 4,022.

By Rob Crane

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February 17, 2017