Wimbledon finally turned their dominance into goals in a thrilling 6-2 victory over Cray Wanderers. Despite only being 1-0 up at half-time, thanks to a Jake Leberl goal, a pulsating second half provided five goals for the Dons, with Beckford and Finn grabbing two goals each. Terry Brown changed the team against the Ryman One opponents, leaving out injured club captain Jason Goodliffe, who was replaced by Howard, and Daniel Webb, who was left on the bench. Richard Butler was handed his first start of the season as a lone striker as the Dons lined up with five midfielders, adding Hatton to the four that played in midweek against Leyton.

Wimbledon looked the stronger side from the off, with some clever possession football. After just eight minutes Jake Leberl put the Dons in front. A Finn corner seemed to be looping all the way in but Leberl sneaked in at the far post to convert from close range and make sure that the Dons went one nil up. Wimbledon continued to press but couldn’t add to their lead. Butler shot wide after a Ferguson cross and a Hatton header was cleared off the line. Butler showed why he had been recalled to the side on the half hour mark, with a brilliant turn in the box; the fans’ favourite shot from a tight angle only to see his effort crash back off the crossbar. Beckford was on hand to tap in the rebound but was deemed to be offside by the linesman.

On the stroke of half-time Cray had their first real chance when Lewis Wood found space in the box but, under pressure from Antony Howard, the striker could only shoot wide. As the ref blew up for half-time there was a sense that Wimbledon could be facing another afternoon of huge amounts of possession but not many goals. However, this idea was blown away in the second half.

The Dons came out determined to finish the game off and Beckford almost did so when he took the ball off a Cray centre-back and found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Unfortunately, the former Aldershot midfielder’s shot was inches wide of the mark. On 52 minutes, however, Beckford made amends by putting Wimbledon 2-0 up. A Richard Butler cross was chested down by Finn into the path of Beckford and this time he made no mistake, slotting the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

Wimbledon continued to strain the Cray defence as Butler’s attempt to finish off a Ferguson cut back was saved and then Hatton’s shot from the rebound was blocked on the line. Cray soon made an influential change as they tried to chase the game. Striker George Fenwick came off the bench for defender Mark Willy. Almost immediately it had an impact as Cray began take hold of the game. They got their reward in the 63rd minute when good work from Jamie Wood allowed Ross Lover to score past Andy Little.

Suddenly back in the game, Cray threw everything forwards. A minute after their goal substitute Fenwick saw his headed goal disallowed for offside, much to the dismay of celebrating Cray fans. To try and re-gain control of the match Brown bought Daniel Webb on for the tiring Butler in the 69th minute. Two minutes later Wimbledon had restored their two goal lead. Tony Finn picked up the ball on the left wing and took it past three Cray defenders before finishing in the bottom corner. However, this two-goal cushion lasted less than a minute when Junior Baker found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper after an excellent through ball. He made no mistake, putting Cray back within a goal’s distance.

The mad nature of the game continued as Wimbledon made it three goals in four minutes. To relieve pressure on the Dons a long ball was launched upfield and it consequently put Webb through on goal. Despite seemingly taking an age to strike the ball, the tall target man put it past Knight to put Wimbledon 4-2 ahead.

After this frantic 10 minutes, which saw the score change from 2-0 in the 63rd minute to 4-2 by the 73rd, Wimbledon calmed the game down. Cray began to lose the momentum from their earlier goals and before long the game was out of their reach. Five minutes before time Karl Beckford got his second after picking up a loose ball and taking it past one defender before curling it home into the top corner. There was still time left for Finn to replicate Beckford’s effort from the opposite wing. Finn picked the ball up on the half-way line on the left side and ran past two tiring defenders before curling his shot home.

The final whistle brought to a close a highly entertaining second half that finally saw Terry Brown’s side score the goals that their dominance deserved. Now attention will turn back to the league as Heybridge Swifts visit Kingsmeadow on Saturday.

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