Tuesday night’s 2-0 victory over Tranmere Rovers gave AFC Wimbledon their first back-to-back away league wins in over a year.
Given how poorly the Dons have been playing at home lately—they have only managed one point from their last three games at Plough Lane—it was a particularly pleasing outcome.
These are the talking points that Dave Hunt-Jackson made during the game.
Quite how AFC Wimbledon went into the break with their noses in front is hard to fathom as their defending, in particular from corners, was woeful at times.
Jordan Turnbull made a clumsy attempt to shoot over from a yard away and then missed a free header, resulting in two obvious mistakes from consecutive set-pieces.
It was occasionally difficult to find any indication that the South Londoners even understood the fundamentals of defending a set piece.
Although this has been a consistent issue season after season, the Dons will need to make significant progress on this display if they are to mount any kind of challenge for promotion this season.
Due to some unnecessarily aggressive tackling from their Merseyside guests, Callum Maycock and Ryan Johnson both hobbled off the field, meaning Wimbledon may have to pay the cost of this triumph.
Sam Finley and Tom Davies were fortunate to just receive yellow cards; a more capable referee would have issued at least one, if not two, red cards.
Although Isaac Ogundere is a more than adequate Johnson substitute, Maycock’s injury is more concerning given Jake Reeves’ ongoing recuperation from a chronic injury and Alistair Smith’s absence on Tuesday.
The last thing the Dons need as they try to live up to the preseason promotion talk is an injury issue, as their patchy league performance is starting to cause them anxiety.
Although this was a largely straightforward win against a poor Tranmere side, clearly low on confidence, it needed Owen Goodman to make two excellent saves in an impressive all-round display.
A deserved clean sheet will do the Crystal Palace loanee’s confidence the world of good after a couple of costly recent errors.
With a game remaining, Wimbledon is once again in a commanding lead over three of the clubs above them.
But we’ve been here before. The Dons were barely outside of the play-off spots at the end of January in Jackson’s debut season as manager, but a terrible run saw them even start to consider relegation.
They must put together a streak of successful performances if they hope to reach their goal of promotion to League Two, something they haven’t done since leaving this tier.
Their early-season home form and all four of their performances in the two major cup competitions demonstrate their ability to succeed.
On Tuesday they won somewhat ugly, which all good teams have to be able to do.
This is Wimbledon’s best starting 11 for some time and the strongest squad, with the likes of Ogundere and Hus Biler unable to get much of a look in.
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