Tempted as he may have been to change things around after the previous Saturday’s disappointing draw with ten-man Cambridge United, Terry Brown settled for making just the one, with Glenn Poole coming in on the left side of midfield in place of Ricky Wellard. But it wasn’t the starting line-up that took the 1,000 visiting supporters by surprise.
First, Luton’s PA announcer described the Dons as “the real Wimbledon Football Club”, and shortly afterwards Hatters fans from all over the stadium spontaneously joined in the Wimbledon supporters’ chants about a certain town in Buckinghamshire. This was a most welcome show of solidarity from another set of fans who firmly believe that their club has suffered at the hands of some inexplicable decisions by football’s hierarchy.
The love-in now over, Luton took all of 90 seconds to show that, on the pitch at least, they weren’t going to be so accommodating. A high ball into the box from full-back Fred Murray caught out Paul Lorraine, and James Pullen could only watch as Tom Craddock’s header looped over him and onto the top of the crossbar. Craddock’s movement off the ball allowed his strike partner Kevin Gallen far more time on it, and between them they were bringing wide men Rossi Jarvis and Keith Keane into play with ease and, worryingly, to some effect. The Dons looked consistently stretched, and but for some last-ditch interventions by Lorraine and Ben Judge, Pullen would have been little short of overworked.
The Dons keeper, under fire after his errors had gifted Cambridge both their goals, was called into action on 20 minutes, diving low to his right to palm away Gallen’s low free-kick. Wimbledon had now started to exert some pressure of their own, but Luton were in the ascendancy and it seemed only a matter of time before they would break through the Dons rearguard and take the lead. Asa Hall scuffed two takable chances, and Craddock had a shot blocked by Judge, but somewhat against the run of play it was Wimbledon who took the lead.
Lewis Taylor clipped a cross to the far post on 28 minutes, and although Nathan Elder’s shot was weakly struck, it caught keeper Mark Tyler by surprise and squeezed under his body and over the line. The assistant referee flagged for a goal, and several seconds later the Dons fans realised what had happened and starting celebrating a most fortuitous opener.
Equally fortuitous was Luton’s equaliser, less than 60 seconds later. Kevin Nicholls’ 20-yard drive was heading for the corner flag when it struck Craddock on the shins and sat up perfectly for the former Middlesbrough man to turn Lorraine and fire past Pullen. One lucky goal apiece only told half the story, though, as Luton’s dominance waned and the Dons got more of a foothold in the game.
With Steven Gregory below par again, and his former Hayes & Yeading team-mate Will Hendry not faring much better, Danny Kedwell was having to come deeper and deeper. But his back-tackling and strength on the ball at least now meant that the Dons were retaining possession in midfield, and Poole and Taylor could move wider. Nicholls rallied his troops for one last push, but the Dons held firm and went in level at the break with no further clear-cut chances for either side.
The Hatters started the second half in much the same fashion as they had the first, attacking the Dons defence with pace and aggression, but the back four in particular appeared to have got the measure of Luton. Danny Blanchett and Sam Hatton were looking far more at ease - Hatton had had a solid first half, and Blanchett was probably pleased that he was facing Keane and not the pacy Adam Newton, who was playing out of position at right-back. But Wimbledon’s full-backs, both the subject of some criticism over the last month or so, were intercepting Nicholls’ and Hall’s attempted through-balls, and despite their territorial superiority Luton weren’t able to do much with it.
The Dons were now more than a match for their opponents. Taylor in particular was enjoying himself against Murray, and the front two of Elder and Kedwell were outmuscling Luton’s George Pilkington and the giant Czech Janos Kovacs, though without truly testing Tyler. But cometh the hour-mark, cometh the man. Judge broke up a Luton attack and prodded the ball to Gregory, who with a neat touch found Elder just inside the Luton half. Elder knocked it out wide on the Dons left for Kedwell to gallop onto.
There didn’t seem to be a huge amount of danger as Kovacs was well positioned to shepherd Kedwell out of danger, but the Dons man beat the Czech with a burst of raw pace, drove into the box and evaded Kovacs’ outstretched leg, and as Tyler came out to narrow the angle, Kedwell opened his body and planted a right-foot shot into the top far corner of the net. It’s not pushing things too far to say that Wayne Rooney would have been happy with a finish like that - Kedwell deservedly milked the adulation, the Dons fans were in raptures, and Luton were in trouble.
Town boss Richard Money reacted by taking off two midfield players and sending on two more strikers, Peterborough loanee Liam Hatch and former Kidderminster hit-man Matthew Barnes-Homer. A home side that switches to 4-2-4 with 20 minutes left has only one thing on its mind, but despite Hatch’s height and Barnes-Homer’s finishing ability, as seen at Kingsmeadow in October, Luton’s best two chances fell once again to Hall. But the midfielder headed over from a Keane corner and then failed to test Pullen with an angled drive.
Kedwell almost made it 3-1 when he turned Kovacs following a quick throw and suddenly found himself in exactly the same position from where he had scored 10 minutes earlier, but this time he couldn’t find the net and his shot only just made it out of play near the corner flag for a goal-kick. A third would have killed Luton off, but as their late win over Oxford the previous week had proved, the Hatters are nothing if not resilient.
Hatch came within a whisker of equalising, but Dons sub Jay Conroy’s flicked header took the ball off the giant striker’s head as he looked to bury Newton’s cross past Pullen, and Lorraine threw himself in front of Gallen’s shot to prevent the former MK Dons man from further endearing himself to the visiting supporters.
With two minutes to go, Wimbledon almost handed Luton the equaliser they probably deserved when Blanchett cheaply surrendered possession to Newton some 25 yards from goal. Instead of hacking the ball out for a throw somewhere near the Luton penalty area, Blanchett tried to beat Newton with what appeared to be one of the least-advised step-overs of the season, but thankfully for the Dons (and for Blanchett in particular) Newton dragged his shot wide of Pullen’s far post.
As the game moved into four minutes of added time, Kedwell's cute flick in the centre circle sent Taylor on a jinking run towards goal and as he out-manoeuvred Kovacs the defender stepped across him and baulked the Dons midfielder with a combination of hip and arm. The referee clearly thought that Pilkington was covering as he showed Kovacs only a yellow card, prompting much derision from the travelling Dons army. In truth, it was the correct decision but many other officials would have seen the blatant body check as a sending-off offence.
One more frantic goalmouth scramble saw the imperious Judge scramble the ball to safety as Barnes-Homer homed in, but the Dons held firm to secure three valuable points.
Terry Brown set his players a target of four points from three testing away games, and they achieved that with a game to spare - probably not what Brown expected. But since when did AFC Wimbledon conform to convention?
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