By Dave Hunt
January 19 2003

Dave Jones kept the squad that won away at Walsall last week despite the lack of flair that Wolves showed against Newcastle. And that lack of flair stayed the same, as Wolves never really seemed to be the stronger side against a team who could only bring along 25 or so fans. Wolves started off quite strongly, threatening the Wimbledon goal 2 or 3 times, one shot in particular from Paul Ince only just creeping past the post. Then the attacking stopped and Wimbledon took their turn at the pressure spell. George Ndah and Shawn Newton then put together a move that kicked a fairly quiet crowd into action, but were denied by a top quality save from Dons keeper Davis.

The crowd went quiet again. None of the usual ‘Barmy Army’ chants or the terrace songs that we have been used to so far this season. This was probably because, like myself, everyone was bored. The game had no passion about it and the next shout came from a dodgy decision by the referee which stopped a promising looking attack from the Wolves. This form stayed the same, Wolves having a few more attacks, only to be stopped by either the referee or the in form Wimbledon defence.

A few minutes before the half time whistle though, Kenny Miller got the crowd of their feet with a nice little header over Davis which fell into the far corner of the Wimbledon goal.

HALF TIME: Wolves 0-0 Wimbledon

Almost immediately after the restart Wimbledon ran down the line, Reo-Coker crossed the ball in and Francis shot the ball into the top corner, levelling the game at 1-1. Molineux couldn’t believe it and once again, silence donned upon us.

No real action happened then, with the exception of a few shots from Newton and Miller that came to nothing. Colin Cameron left the field of play for about 5 or 6 minutes but came back on after receiving treatment in the dressing room, leaving Wolves with only 10 men. Cooper came on for Newton around half way through the second half and received a great welcome from the fans.

Paul Butler had a goal disallowed on the 80-minute mark but the goal was ruled out, with the ref claiming that David had been fouled. A bad decision that cost Wolves the 2 points. Wimbledon went on the attack then, and the introduction of Proudlock seemed to o nothing for the final few minutes.

Final Notes: *The supporters interest in the team seems to be going downhill. A 5 minute spell of Barmy Army chants in the second half was all that really came from the Southbank faithful and I could actually hear individual voices at some points in the game. *How the hell are Wimbledon surviving with away followings like that – I couldn’t see over 25 people! *We miss Nathan Blake at front. Kenny Miller is playing as he is going to play at the moment but £3,000,000 is still way too much for play like this!

MY MAN OF THE MATCH – George Ndah