A90th-minute winner from who else but Danny Kedwell ensured that the Dons left Priory Lane with all three points after they had thrown away a hard-earned two-goal lead in the second half.

AFC Wimbledon’s third away trip of 2010/11 was more a game of six sixths than a game of two halves, both sides dominating for alternate spells in a lively and often pulsating encounter that was at times short on quality but always rich in entertainment and incident. Terry Brown had hinted that he was going to make full use of the 20 of his 21-man squad who were available over the bank holiday weekend’s two games, so the inclusion of Christian Jolley and Lee Minshull for their full debuts, in place of Jon Main and Rashid Yussuff, was hardly a surprise. Both players were starting Conference games for the first time in their careers, Jolley just 12 months after turning out for Oxted & District in a Surrey Intermediate League game.

As they had done in their previous four games, the Dons started out the brighter of the two sides, with Danny Kedwell and Sammy Moore combining well early on until Eastbourne defender Matt Langston intervened. Jolley’s trickery was providing Neil Jenkins with something to think about, and Steven Gregory was testing the water with his first salvo of cross-field passes, Jolley and Luke Moore his targets out wide. The visitors didn’t particularly trouble Ricky Banks in the Borough goal, but the opening minutes of the game certainly gave the 800 or so Dons fans the impression that they’d enjoy this encounter rather more than they had the trip to Northants four days earlier.

It was then Eastbourne’s turn to dominate, and if truth be told they looked more dangerous going forward than Wimbledon had done. Richard Pacquette seemed intent on returning the Dons fans’ verbal volleys for previously having played for a certain team from Buckinghamshire, and of his three half-decent attempts to beat Seb Brown, the second, a twisting volley on the edge of the box, came closest to opening the scoring.

Former Don Jamie Taylor forced Brown into a smart reflex save, but Brett Johnson and Ismail Yakubu were once again showing that their early-season understanding wasn’t beginners’ luck, marshalling the home side’s strikers with efficiency and patience, despite some shaky moments that followed Ross Treleaven’s huge throws. Simon Weatherstone’s 25-yard drive fizzed just wide of Brown’s right post as Borough sought to make the most of their period of ascendancy, but just a minute into the Dons’ next turn at dominating the game, Kedwell gave them the lead.

Gregory’s simple pass to the Dons skipper, some 30 yards from goal, certainly didn’t have the look of an assist, but Kedwell’s low drive skipped past Banks’s outstretched arms and found its way into the bottom right corner of the net, despite the keeper looking to have the effort covered.

Five minutes later the Dons could have, perhaps should have, quadrupled their lead. Jolley’s 70-yard dash down the wing and simple ball across the edge of the box found Sammy Moore unmarked, but he scuffed his shot and it was easily saved. Luke Moore then almost replicated the effort after Lee Minshull, looking strong and commanding throughout, had neatly stepped over Sam Hatton’s pass; Luke Moore was then put through on goal by an exquisite Kedwell through-ball, but he clipped his shot narrowly wide of the far post as Banks closed the angle. The talk on the terraces as the half-time whistle blew was whether or not Terry Brown’s men would later come to rue those spurned opportunities.

Within 10 minutes of the restart it was clear that, although if the first half’s logic was to be followed it was Eastbourne’s turn to control the game, the second period was going to follow the pattern of the first, with the Dons dominating for the first third. And dominate they did - in the space of 30 seconds, Minshull’s chip from the edge of the area struck the inside of the post and rolled along the line before Luke Moore collected the loose ball and set up Gregory for a blast at goal. His 25-yard piledriver rattled the bar, and after some penalty-area bagatelle the ball was fed back to the England C International, and this time his shot from even further out flew inches over the bar.

What more could the Dons do to score? Easy. Five minutes later, Andre Blackman set off on mazy dribble down the left and fed Luke Moore a perfectly weighted ball, and from his cross Minshull powered a header past Banks from 12 yards to double the Dons’ lead. Yakubu almost made it three, but though he got on the end of Hatton’s free-kick to the near post, the defender could only bundle the ball wide.

For the next 20 minutes the Dons were forced to do all they could to prevent Eastbourne from not just reducing the deficit, or even from equalising, but from storming back and taking all three points. It was full credit to Garry Wilson’s men that they didn’t admit defeat. Far from it - Pacquette, Taylor and Treleaven all had chances to score that they failed to take, but with 20 minutes left Weatherstone found the net with a well-struck shot from a free-kick on the edge of the D after Minshull was rather harshly penalised.

Almost inexplicably, the Dons then started to misplace passes, lose possession easily and generally give the impression of a side there to be beaten rather than one that had just conceded a consolation goal. Weatherstone, Crabbe, Taylor and Treleaven all had decent attempts at equalising as Borough turned up the heat and piled on the pressure. With 11 minutes to go, the Dons finally buckled when sub Andy Atkin, on for the crocked Pacquette, stole in at the far post and headed a Weatherstone free-kick powerfully past Brown. It could have been worse for the Dons, but Atkin missed another golden opportunity to give the home side the lead when he headed wide after a Jenkins cross had eluded the entire Dons defence.

The Dons now seemed like a spent attacking force, and even the introduction of Yussuff and Ryan Jackson couldn’t force the game back into their favour. Eastbourne looked the far likelier of the two sides to snatch the decisive fifth goal, but just as the fourth official was typing in the number 4 to indicate the amount of added time, the Dons numbers 7 and 9 brilliantly fashioned a clinical winner.

Sam Hatton beat two Borough defenders as he threaded his way across the pitch with a lung-busting run and placed an inch-perfect through-ball invitingly in Kedwell’s path. The striker timed his run to perfection, got there ahead of Banks and slid the ball past the despairing Langston on the line and into the back of the net to send the Dons fans into raptures with his fifth goal in five games.

This was a game that had pretty much everything - goals, misses, posts and bars struck, end-to-end action, incidents aplenty, a pantomime villain . . . and the acquisition of three more points to put the Dons at the top of the table.