Game 3: AFC Wimbledon 1.2 Salisbury City (Friendly) 26.07.08

As Amy was working in London today, decided to revisit Kingsmeadow to watch this friendly. The last game I saw here was back in the last century when Yeovil were playing Kingstonian in a Conference game. Since then the ground has been sold to AFC and a new stand has been built behind one goal, with an extention being added to the stand at the side. Decided to watch the game from the shallow terrace where I used to watch games when I was a local.

Salisbury started well and Matt Tubbs hit the crossbar from no more than a yard out after 5 minutes. Salisbury had the better of the first half but it was the Dons who took the lead after 36 minutes. The ball was played from the halfway line into his path and despite the offside protests from the Salisbury players, the striker was allowed to continue his run and carefully passed the ball into the bottom far corner before the defence could react. This encouraged the Dons, especially their pacy no 11 who was giving Scott Bartlett a difficult time down the right hand side.



At halftime it was good to see the traditional swapping of ends again as the Salisbury fans moved behind the goal nearest me. The music was entertaining as well - a version of Pulp's Common People sung by Star Trek's own William Shatner was the highlight for me.

In the second half Salisbury put more pressure on and it was no surprise when Andy Sandell scored the equaliser from a corner - a powerful header from 6 yards out. He was substituted shortly afterwards and it looked like he twisted his ankle when landing for a header. The Dons keeper also had a problem with an injury and goalkicks were taken by a defender instead.

AFC Wimbledon came back into the game and were really unlucky not to score with a rising shot that smacked off the crossbar and out. Salisbury then broke away and following a neat pass and move, Darrell Clarke scored the winner with a volley in the box past the keeper.

The game then lost it's edge with a number of substitutions from both sides. Jon Davies and Danny Young played 20 minutes or so and both looked fairly lively. A good workout for the Salisbury team and it was great to see a win for the Whites at last!