Oli Finney’s stoppage-time winner saw Crewe Alexandra defeat AFC Wimbledon at Plough Lane yesterday. Mika Mandron’s 8th goal of the season gave the Alex the lead on the hour-mark after Ryan Longman’s late goal looked to have given the Dons a point before Finney’s strike.
Manager David Artell made one change from Tuesday’s 2-1 home win against Plymouth Argyle with Luke Murphy replacing Tom Lowery in midfield, Lowery self-isolating after coming in contact with someone with the virus.
The opening chance of the game came in the 17th minute with Owen Dale’s shot going wide of the post after combining with Murphy before Finney blazed over in the 28th minute. Ryan Wintle and Dale would come close in the minutes before the break with the Alex on top in the first half.
The opening goal of the game came on the hour as stand-in captain Harry Pickering’s low cross allowed Mandron to score from about a yard out. The final 10 minutes saw Will Nightingale heading wide under little pressure before Pickering made a great block to deny the hosts a leveler. The equaliser came in the final minute with Longman’s effort shot into the bottom corner before Murphy’s diagonal ball headed down by substitute Chris Porter into Finney’s path to sidefoot across Connal Trueman into the bottom corner of the Dons’ goal.
The next games for the Alex see us host Fleetwood Town next Saturday before a trip to Rochdale the following Tuesday.
What can we take out of this game?
Another decent victory that sees the club head into the Xmas/New Year period sitting in 9th place, 3 points off 6th place and a further 3 points away from the top of the league.
Another goal from Mandron scoring inside the 6-yard box, think it’s his 2nd or 3nd that he’s got from that range already this season and such a good response from Finney continually getting into dangerous areas in and around the box, even if his end product isn’t consistently where he would want it to be in his fledgeling career to date.
Plough Lane
League 1
19/12/2020 4:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: James Linington
| AFC Wimbledon | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longman | Mandron, Finney | ||||||
| Trueman | Jaaskelainen | ||||||
| Thomas | 70 | Offord | |||||
| Nightingale | Lancashire | ||||||
| Csoka | Beckles | ||||||
| McLoughlin | Pickering | ||||||
| Woodyard | 83 | Murphy | |||||
| Reilly | Wintle | ||||||
| Seddon | Finney | ||||||
| Longman | Dale | 80 | |||||
| Pigott | 61 | Mandron | 62 | ||||
| Rudoni | 62 | Kirk | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Tzanev | Booth | ||||||
| Alexander | 83 | Powell | 80 | ||||
| Hartigan | 70 | Porter | 62 | ||||
| Palmer | 61 | Zanzala | |||||
| Chislett | 62 | Griffiths | |||||
| Guinness-Walker | Adebisi | ||||||
| Kalambayi | Johnson | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 14 | Goal attempts | 9 |
| 4 | On Target | 3 |
| 3 | Corners | 2 |
| 9 | Fouls | 7 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 37 | % | 63 |