Two goals in two minutes midway through the first half of a compelling encounter condemned AFC Wimbledon to their second successive home defeat.

It’s not all that often that a player parades around the pitch waving to supporters the day after he’s left a club, but Chris Hussey’s emotional farewell to the Dons following his loan to Championship side Coventry City signalled the start of an afternoon that just didn’t go to plan for Terry Brown.

The manager elected to replace the departed left-back with Brett Johnson, with Alan Inns lining up alongside Paul Lorraine in the centre of defence. Jay Conroy was restored at right-back, making three changes to the back four from the side that won 5-2 at Forest Green Rovers the week before. Sam Hatton returned to his more usual midfield berth, and Lewis Taylor moved back out to the right.

Kettering sprang a surprise of their own, starting with giant centre-back Exodus Geohaghon in the centre of midfield in support of the similarly Biblically named former Watford and Rangers striker Moses Ashikodi, and it was the latter who had the first chance of the game when Paul Lorraine gave the ball away needlessly to Patrick Noubissie. Thankfully Ashikodi wasn’t able to punish the Dons skipper for his error, Inns forcing him to shoot earlier than he wanted. Kettering keeper Lee Harper came to his side’s rescue on six minutes when he saved Jon Main’s point-blank effort after Danny Kedwell had been allowed to waltz through two challenges in the penalty area.

It was a breathless start to a game that promised goals, though for a match that was ebbing and flowing pleasingly, clear-cut chances were few and far between. But with 18 minutes gone Kettering took the lead. Geohaghon launched one of his extraordinary long throws, and when a combination of Lorraine and Steven Gregory failed to clear, Greg Taylor drove his shot through a mass of bodies and into the net past a virtually static James Pullen.

A minute and a half later the visitors went 2-0 up. Lewis Taylor lost possession some 25 yards from his own goal and looked on in horror as Danny Thomas got the ball under control, saw Pullen off his line and hammered a peach of a shot up and over the keeper, to the delight of the travelling Poppies fans in the Kingston Road End.

However, Town boss Mark Cooper had hardly finished celebrating when the Dons pulled a goal back. Sam Hatton’s deep cross to the far post was headed back into the six-yard box by Kedwell, and Main pounced to nod in his sixth goal of the season. Three goals in the first 22 minutes -- to complement five in the same opening period of the previous game -- were almost added to within a minute when Kedwell forced his way into the box, brushed James Jennings’ challenge aside and drove his shot just wide of Harper’s far post. An equaliser seemed inevitable, but despite the Dons’ endeavours it just wouldn’t come, Kettering defenders flinging themselves in front of efforts by Kedwell, Luke Moore and Gregory before the half was out.

Kettering emerged from the half-time break with one thing on their mind: defending their lead. Ashikodi was cutting an almost lonely figure as he battled vainly against the might of Inns and Lorraine, Cooper having pulled Thomas and Francis Green further back as the visitors set out to deny the Dons the equaliser they deserved. Harper made a fine stop from Moore, and Kedwell was unlucky on two occasions as Wimbledon seized the initiative and upped the tempo. Surely that equaliser would come.

On the hour Terry Brown reshuffled his pack. Off come Conroy, on came Ricky Wellard; Hatton moved to right-back, Moore to the right and Taylor inside. Whatever Brown thought the changes might achieve, they were, in truth, detrimental to the Dons’ attempts to claw a point back.

Wellard seemed out of sorts and surrendered possession almost immediately after coming on. His confidence seemed permanently dented, and Brett Johnson was now having to adopt a slightly more attacking role in support of the former Ashford Town man, whose demeanour certainly wasn’t helped by referee Creighton with 25 minutes to go. Wellard’s header from Sam Hatton’s dinked cross was superbly turned round the post by Harper, but incredibly both Mr Creighton and his assistant failed to see the keeper’s touch and awarded a goal kick.

Kedwell’s smart turn and shot which flew past Harper’s post soon afterwards represented the Dons’ best chance of the half, and although the keeper fumbled a Moore piledriver he casually recovered to arrogantly hold the ball aloft with one hand. Harper then denied Kedwell with a fine, flying save from what was only a half-chance, but Poppies’ sub Andre Boucard nearly put the game out of the Dons’ reach only for Pullen, largely underworked in the second half, to produce a top-drawer save.

Town threw on former Cheltenham striker Damien Spencer for the last few minutes, with a vague nod towards possibly scoring again, but Ashikodi’s withdrawal signalled the visiting manager’s real intent. With no further goals before the final whistle, Kettering had reversed the Dons’s 2-1 win at Rockingham Road in August - a game that the home side had a similarly genuine reason to be disappointed to lose.