After playing some excellent passing football in the first half, the Dons held on comfortably in the second period to complete a 2-1 victory over Kingstonian at Kingsmeadow in the sides' first competitive meeting since Wimbledon?s reformation in an AFC guise.
Despite several enforced changes, Dave Anderson stuck with a 4-4-2 formation. With Jake Cole and Mark Jones ineligible, Paul Smith and Ryan Gray returned to the side, while Julian Sills replaced Steve Butler at centre-back against his old team. With Gavin Bolger sidelined by injury, Jon-Barrie Bates partnered Micky Woolner in the centre of the park and Leon McDowell deputised for the injured Martin Randall up front.
Gareth Graham sent the home side in front after just seven minutes. McDowell and Butler both challenged for the same header, but the ball fell kindly for Graham to rifle a shot past Hart at his near post with a bit of help from a defender's outstretched leg.
Four minutes later, K's were level. Slack marking from a freekick allowed Robert Paris enough time to cushion a header to himself and hammer the ball past a luckless Smith, left totally exposed by his defence,
Wimbledon were stirred into action and forced a couple of corners which Gray whipped in dangerously. One was forced away from the line by Hart under pressure from Butler. Shortly afterwards, the goalkeeper came out to collect the ball and dropped it at Butler's feet, but was relieved when Butler could only shot straight at the goalkeeper from a narrow angle out wide.
Rose then headed narrowly wide from a corner for the visitors and Smith came out well to claim in the air from Okujwa. Some good hold-up play from McDowall teed up Ursell, but his through ball was too strong for the strikers.
But a second Dons goal wasn?t long in coming. And it came from a lovely passing move. Ursell won a throw-in and exchanged passes quickly with Gray, who sent a low pass up to Butler on the edge of the area. His delightful backheel sent Micky Woolner away. Woolner?s first effort was half blocked by a defender, but he pounced first as the ball looped up to slot the ball into the far corner for 2-1 with just 23 minutes gone.
That roused the Dons to more of the same, and some good link-up play between McDowall, Bates and Gray sent Butler spinning off his man and eventually winning a corner. The referee spent a couple of minutes trying and failing to return the corner flag to an upright position, but after a comic interlude Hart got into the clowning mood by flapping amusingly at Ursell's corner. It was hacked away before a Wimbledon player could take advantage.
As the Dons continued to stroke the ball around in a confident manner, Bates had a shot blocked and more wing trickery from Ursell and Gray worried the K's defence without creating a shooting opportunity.
It seemed Woolner must have riled the K's team by scoring his excellent goal, as Richard Taylor slid in for an extremely late tackle that left the Dons midfielder on the ground in some pain. No sooner had he returned to the fray than a flying Lewis Hamilton challenge as both players went in for a 50-50 ball connected forcefully with his left foot. But he leapt straight back up to set up another Dons attack.
Another well-delivered corner from Gray on the stroke of half-time almost curled in under the bar, but was somehow knocked behind by a combination of defender and goalkeeper. From the next corner, Howard was penalised for a push as Gray continued to supply excellent set-piece delivery. 2-1 seemed scant reward at half-time for the Dons? dominance in terms of territory, possession and, indeed, style.
As the second half started, a group of Kingstonian fans made their way around the ground unfurling a banner reading ?Khosla out?. They received warm applause on the way round, before settling behind the Kingston Road goal.
But the mood of fraternity clearly didn?t extend as far as the playing surface, as Giles Coke was more than fortunate to receive only a yellow card for an utterly atrocious late lunge on Gareth Graham, comfortably the worst challenge seen at Kingsmeadow this, or indeed any other, season. Sliding through both Graham?s legs from behind, there was clearly no attempt or intent to play the ball. As the crowd initially feared the worst, Graham dusted himself down after treatment from Mike Rayner and gingerly returned to the pitch.
Almost immediately he found Ursell with a cute pass and Ursell split the defence to send both McDowell and Butler clear. Butler opted to shoot but screwed his effort horribly wide. Ojukwa was penalised for a foul on Howard at the other end as he tried to chase down a long ball into the area.
A charged down clearance fell kindly for the visitors and set them away on a break. A deflected shot was spinning dangerously into the six-yard box until hacked away by Woolner. As Kingstonian enjoyed their most consistent spell of possession of the game, Okujwa turned Conroy on the edge of the box but shot straight at Smith. Ruggles then stung the young goalkeeper?s hands with a fierce shot from about 25 yards.
Kingstonian looked brighter as the game wore on, while the Dons seemed pretty comfortably in control of the game, but couldn?t match the first-half passages of passing and movement. With ten minutes remaining, Robert Paris got in on the K's "chopping someone down unnecessarily from behind with no attempt to play the ball" act, and he too received a yellow card from the referee for his lunge on Butler.
As K's pushed forward in search of a late equaliser, Smith produced an excellent save to palm away a low drive hammered goalwards by Lee, and Ojukwa chipped the rebound against the crossbar and behind. Ruggles then almost wriggled clear but was finally dispossessed on the edge of the box.
But the Dons clung on for a well-deserved victory and the chance to host either Crystal Palace or Chipstead in the Fourth Round.
Previous match 
