Wimbledon - 1 (Agyemang 22.)
Crystal Palace 0

A very poor crowd turned out for this match, but at 13,000+ it was, presumably, a lot higher than the Dons are used to getting for their home games. 5,000+ Palace fans boosted the numbers, and they must be fans to turn up to watch yet another "home" defeat for the Eagles. Surely Alan Smith will have to turn things round soon, but next week could be a difficult time to start as we host runaway League leaders Fulham.

The rain eased for the start of this match, and it was fairly obvious to all that were there that the teams were fairly evenly balanced. The action certainly went from one end of the ground to the other with alarming speed. With Clinton Morrison playing a midfield/wing role for a change, he was the first to present an opportunity to our front-runners. His deep cross from the right wing just skimmed over the head of Mikael Forssell, but Andrejs Rubins was on hand at the far post. The header that he came up with though, went just over the top of the bar, and our chance to take the lead had passed us by.

Jonathan Hunt immediately replied at the other end of the park, his wicked shot being well blocked on the line by on loan defender Matthew Upson. Andrejs took another snap-shot at goal, the ball passing safely over the bar to the relief of the ever-watchful Kelvin Davis in goal for our tenants.

Shortly after this Jason Euell forced Alex Kolinko into a good save, but Wimbledon were not to be denied much longer. Darren Holloway made a good run down the right, and beating Amir Karic he put a good cross in that Patrick Agyemang made no mistake with, burying the ball in the back of the net.

Palace now pushed forward even more, and two quick corners almost saw Clinton score, his shot being palmed away by the keeper at the last moment. A cross from Euell was badly cleared by Jamie Smith, but Dean Austin cleared the resulting strike from Trond Andersen off the line.

With the amount of ball that the Dons were getting down the right Alan immediately brought Amir off, replacing him with young Andrew Frampton. As the half began to peter out Andersen had to tackle well to deny Mikael a clear shot on goal, and the teams trooped off to "listen" to the words of wisdom from the management team.

An early corner saw Dougie Freedman head the ball clear of the keeper, but the post denied him leveling the scores, and then it was action at the other end, with Agyemang "scoring" once again, the strike being ruled out for a push on one of the defenders. He really should have added a second though when Euell set him up with a clear chance on goal, but somehow he managed to simply prove what a good keeper Alex is.

The final part of the play saw Dougie come close a couple of times, only the brilliance of Davis in goal denying him the goal that Palace so desperately needed, and almost before anyone was aware the full-time whistle had been blown, and Palace had wasted yet another opportunity to get off the 37 points that we seem to be stuck on.

Funnily enough we always seem to get stuck around about this point, but once we start into the forty point mark let's hope that things dramatically improve from there. As Alan said, we had twelve shots on goal to their three in this match, but we still came out on the wrong side of the ledger. Fulham will certainly be no easier next week.

Colin Pryce

Wimbledon: Kelvin Davis, Kenny Cunningham, Andy Roberts, Darren Holloway, Mark Williams, Peter Hawkins, Trond Andersen, Neal Ardley, Jonathan Hunt (Alan Kimble 76), Jason Euell, Patrick Agyemang (Michael Hughes 76).

Substitutes not used: Paul Heald, Wayne Gray, Rob Gier.

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Dean Austin, Matthew Upson, Jamie Smith (Tommy Black 63), Amir Karic (Andrew Frampton 38), Andrejs Rubins, Clinton Morrison (Ricardo Fuller 87), Steve Thomson, Mikael Forssell, Dougie Freedman, Hayden Mullins.

Substitutes not used: Julian Gray, Gregg Berhalter.

Attendance: 13,167

Referee: Mr P Taylor (Cheshunt)