AFC Wimbledon booked their place in the League Two play-off final at Wembley with a confident 1-0 victory over Notts County at Plough Lane on Saturday.
Josh Neufville struck inside the opening 10 minutes to make it 2-0 on aggregate and calm the home side’s nerves. It proved to be enough as the visitors never got going.
The Dons will face Walsall in the final, after they ran out of their semi-final clash with Chesterfield as 4-1 winners on aggregate.
Here is the lowdown on the match.
THE LINE-UPS
AFC Wimbledon: Goodman, Johnson, Lewis, Harbottle (Ogundere 46), Tilley, Smith, Reeves, Hippolyte (Maycock 81), Neufville, Browne (Kelly 63), Stevens (Sasu 81). Subs not used: Ward, Ball, Pigott.
Notts County: Bass, Bedeau, Platt, Macari, Austin (Jarvis 54), Palmer, Abbott, Jones, Whitaker, Traore (Morias 69), Grant (Robertson 69). Subs not used: Miller, McDonald, Hinchy, Edwards.
SNAPSHOT OF THE GAME
Notts County appeared to have more goal threat in the early minutes of the tie but the pace and composure of Josh Neufville soon turned the tide. The wideman took down a long ball over the top from Joe Lewis before lifting his finish delicately over Alex Bass and into the net. Marcus Browne should have made it two for the Dons when he was played in behind by Matty Stevens in the 56th minute. He seemed to have all the time in the world to pick his spot, but dawdled too long on the ball… and then he did the exact same thing barely three minutes later. Alex Bass kept the first-leg’s trend of superb goalkeeping up as he made a ridiculous stop low to his left to deny Stevens a headed goal in the 68th minute. Notts were unable to recreate that level of quality at the other end.
TACTICAL APPROACH
The Dons fielded an unchanged line-up from their first leg trip to Nottingham. Owen Goodman remained in net after his first-leg heroics, and Myles Hippolyte retained his spot after making his first start since November in the first leg. James Tilley played off the right and Neufville the left, opening the option for both men to cut inside. Browne partnered Stevens in the front two of the Dons’ 3-5-2 shape, while striker Omar Bugiel was absent from the squad altogether, with Joe Pigott becoming the premier attacking threat off the bench. Notts County were forced to make-do without top scorers Alassana Jatta and David McGoldrick, who found themselves suspended and injured respectively. Attackers Mai Traore and Charlie Whitaker replaced them in the frontline. Notts fielded an otherwise unchanged 11 in their 3-4-2-1 shape as they hoped to find a way through the best defence in the league on paper.
STAR MAN
Alistair Smith. The Dons’ big man in midfield has been brilliant throughout the season, but on Saturday he really showed how important he is in this side. The backline rightfully get credit for the South Londoners’ superb defensive record, but so much of that starts with Smith’s boundless energy and well-timed tackles in midfield. He also does well to anchor much of his side’s build-up play, facilitating quick switches to the widemen when trying to break opponents down.
MOAN OF THE MATCH
You never enjoy singling players out for negative reasons, but it has to be acknowledged that Browne should have killed the game off twice over between the 56th and 60th minutes. He found himself in on goal and clear of any defenders, and twice his indecision resulted in a squandered chance. Wimbledon’s 2-0 lead seemed comfortable at the time, but it was less than two months ago that Wimbledon held the same advantage here in the 87th minute against Barrow, only to leave with a point. A third would have been decisive.
TALKING POINT DOWN THE PUB
AFC Wimbledon are going to Wembley! After a bizarre season that saw them drop out of the automatic promotion picture late in the year, the team have knuckled down and ground out a comfortable victory over two legs. Wimbledon’s stalwart defence continues to be their biggest asset, having kept clean sheets in each of their last three games.
WHAT THE BOSS HAD TO SAY
“We were outstanding, a really top performance against tough opposition. We defended brilliantly, and we had real threat going forward as well. We scored an unbelievable goal, but we probably should have had a few more as well. We have done a lot of work on being hard to beat defensively this week and then trying to exploit some of their weaknesses too. To keep two clean sheets over the two ties, that means we deserved to win.”
PICTURES: KYLE ANDREWS
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