Wealdstone 0 – 2 AFC Wimbledon

Wealdstone

Friendly

0 - 2

AFC Wimbledon

KO: 13:00 | Sat 29th Jul ’23

Wealdstone were defeated 2-0 by League Two side AFC Wimbledon on a sunny day at Grosvenor Vale, thanks to goals from Omar Bugiel and Ali Al-Hamadi.

A hectic start to the friendly saw both teams’ fashion similar chances within the first five minutes of the game. Pinpoint cross from Giovanni McGregor fell to skipper Jack Cook at the back post, who fizzed a dangerous ball across the box that narrowly missed a Wealdstone body.

A minute later, Josh Neufville played an almost identical ball across the Stones penalty area, but a miss-hit shot from Josh Davison scuppered a big chance for the visitors.  Johnnie Jackson’s side didn’t let the early miss affect them and took the lead five minutes in when Jack Currie floated a pintpoint cross onto the head of Bugiel, who looped his header out of Jed Ward’s reach and into the top corner.

Despite the Stones playing their trademark possession football, the visitors looked unfazed and continued to cause problems for the hosts, creating dangerous chances whenever they seized possession from Stuart Maynard’s side.

Utilising their size advantage, the Dons saw two headers from the imposing Ryan Johnson go narrowly wide of the Stones goal, once from a corner and again from another dangerous ball cross from Currie.

The marauding Wimbledon left-back caused problems for the Stones back-line for the entirety of the first-half and on 30 minutes created yet another chance from the left-flank, driving to the by-line and pulling the ball across to midfielder Jake Reeves, who fired over with all the goal to aim at.

An unfortunate incident just before half-time saw new Wealdstone signing Luke Dreher stretchered off on his debut with a suspected broken arm after a nasty collision with Bugiel, that earned the Dons striker a booking for his clumsy attempt to win the ball.

The second-half saw the Stones start the brighter of the two sides, creating two big chances early on as they hunted for an equaliser.  The first chance saw Charles Clayden played through after clever play from Mundle-Smith and Tahvon Campbell, but a strong save from Alex Bass denied the Stones an equaliser.

Just minutes later, Olufela Olomola played in former Wimbledon forward Corie Andrews, but the striker’s shot was well blocked by a Dons defender. Seventy minutes in, James Tilley forced a big save out of Ward with a curling effort towards the top corner. Despite the Stones efforts to keep out the resulting corner, a scramble inside the box saw the ball eventually fall into the path of Al-Hamadi, who smashed his effort into the back of the net to double the visitor’s advantage.

With a two-goal lead to defend, the League Two side professionally closed out the victory that saw the Stones pre-season fixtures come to an end ahead of the season opener at home against York City next Saturday at 3pm.

WEALDSTONE: Ward, Barker, Cook (c), Mundle-Smith, Clayden, Dreher (Charles 45), Dyer, McGregor (Andrews 45), Obiero (Phillips 82), Olomola (Ferguson 69), Campbell (Trialist 69). Subs not used: Baptiste, Pottle, Debney.

Report by Will Beaman

Jon Taffel Match pics HERE