Anyone seeing this result for the first time on Sky Sports News or in the Non League Paper will doubtless think that the Dons dropped two precious points in what is looking increasingly like the race for fifth place in the Blue Square Premier. But anyone who was inside Kingsmeadow Stadium for this far from enthralling encounter will know the true story - AFC Wimbledon were slightly fortunate to take even a single point.

Altrincham arrived with a game plan to nullify the Dons’ attacking options, adopting a 4-5-1 formation that left BSP Player of the Month for February, Chris Senior, isolated up front with three defensive midfielders screening the back four. Graham Heathcote’s side executed their plan, however lacking in ambition it might have been, to the letter, and would have been considering themselves unlucky to be travelling back to Cheshire without the win their efforts just about deserved.

The first half was drab and grey, in stark contrast to the bright sunshine that lit up the newly modified ground. The Dons managed just two efforts on target in the opening period, and one of those was a complete mis-hit. Altrincham began the game camped in the Wimbledon half, but failed to create a clear-cut chance despite forcing a succession of corners.

Wimbledon seemed to be in a state of discombobulation at the back, Derek Duncan coming to the rescue on a couple of occasions when Chris Denham and Senior were given far too much space. Duncan, making his first league start of 2010 at the expense of Danny Blanchett, who had struggled at centre-half against Chipstead’s Sean Rivers in midweek, looked assured and composed - in stark contrast to the Dons midfield. Steven Gregory, Will Hendry and Glenn Poole all looked off the pace, and even Danny Kedwell, a shoe-in for Player of the Year if ever there was one, was giving the ball away far too often.

Even as the Dons came into the game as the half wore on, their tactic of spreading the play wide to Sam Hatton on the right was becoming predictable, as was the loss of possession that inevitably followed. Gregory and Hendry were finding the feet of their opponents with alarming regularity, much to the distaste of Messrs Brown, Cash and Bassey, and it was fortunate that Altrincham were equally wasteful and inaccurate with their passing.

Kedwell, inevitably, had the Dons’ best opportunity of the turgid half. From Taylor’s cross from the left he powered a header back across Stuart Coburn in the visitors’ goal, but the keeper made a superb right-handed save to tip the ball to safety - an effort worthy of a far better game than this. Hendry then slid Kedwell in behind and between the Altrincham centre-halves, but Coburn forced him wide. Poole skied his shot after Kedwell, who had kept possession, beaten his man and spotted his team-mate in space on the edge of the box.

Six minutes into the second half, a disastrous piece of defending by three experienced Dons handed Altrincham the lead. Nathan Elder and Poole switched off at a throw-in, Denham broke into the box behind Duncan, and the former Wycombe and Leyton Orient man grappled Denham to the ground for the most stonewall of penalties. Senior blasted the spot-kick past Pullen, and though there were 39 minutes left, the Dons first home defeat since November looked odds-on.

Cue Luke Moore. The mercurial striker had been out of action with a hip injury for over three months, but four weeks ahead of schedule he’d been declared fit, and he replaced the mildly concussed Poole just after the hour. It would be overstating the impact of Moore’s arrival to say that the game changed as he entered the field of play, but suddenly the spark that had been missing from Wimbledon’s play returned with the fleet-footed number 18’s introduction.

Moore’s pace and trickery finally caused problems for the visitors’ defence, which had coped rather admirably and comfortably with Elder and Kedwell, and on 75 minutes his clipped cross into the penalty area led to the Dons’ equaliser. Taylor’s flicked header was well saved by Coburn with his legs, but the ball popped up invitingly for Ben Judge to head home his second goal of the season - both of them against Altrincham at the Tempest End.

Now, at last, Wimbledon looked capable of winning a game that had seemed beyond them. But Heathcote’s men stood firm, and only a weak Kedwell header from a corner looked likely to trouble Coburn. The Dons’ run of five home league wins in a row was over, and with it went the chance to beat Altrincham three times in the same season. Heathcote’s parting shot to the Dons’ fans behind his dugout of “See you next season!” was rather unnecessary, but unless Wimbledon up their game in the next couple of match-packed weeks, they may well do so.