Harry Forrester Scores First Goal For AFC Wimbledon
Northampton Town 0 v AFC Wimbledon 1
On-loan Glasgow Rangers midfielder Harry Forrester scored his first goal for AFC Wimbledon as his side chalked up a valuable 1-0 away win at fellow strugglers Northampton Town on Saturday (14 October).
The attacking midfielder has been used sparingly since arriving from Ibrox as he gains match fitness, but was given a start as an attacking midfielder behind solo striker Lyle Taylor, with Andy Barcham and Egli Kaja offering support to Forrester in attack when the Dons gained possession. And the new formation paid dividends as Forrester’s 61st minute strike earned the Dons all three points.
Both sides went into the match with a record of impotence in front of goal, but Northampton were also keen to avoid a repeat of the 6-0 drubbing that they suffered in their previous home match. The result was a drab encounter with few goalscoring opportunities.
It wasn’t until shortly before the break that either side seriously tested the other’s goalkeeper as George Long tipped over a fierce strike from Daniel Powell.
So it might have been something of a surprise when the Dons took the lead just after the hour. Kaja flicked the ball to Taylor, who had drifted wide to the right, and he rolled it through for the advancing Forrester to latch onto. Although Matt Ingram got a hand to his shot, there was enough pace on it to just creep inside the post and put the Dons 1-0 ahead.
Ash Taylor wasted a chance to equalise almost immediately for the home side, his effort going wide when he had been left unmarked, and the Dons soon chose to set their stall out by replacing Forrester with Deji Oshilaja from the bench as they set out to defend.
The fact that they made it through to the end without conceding indicates a job well done, but nobody in the crowd would be writing to their relatives to enthuse about the match they had witnessed.
Manager Neal Ardley commented on the club’s iFollow Dons channel afterwards: ‘We knew it was going to be tight game, but we tried to put players on the pitch who might just take that chance when it came around and it was great that Harry managed to do that.
‘We said beforehand that if we were going to win, it was probably going to be 1-0. We had to see our jobs through and do everything we could to win the game. We managed to take that chance and we limited them to very little.’
Northampton: Ingram, Moloney, Taylor, Pierre, Buchanan, McWilliams (O’Toole 78), Grimes, McGugan (Bowditch 67), Powell, Waters, Hoskins (Foley 85). Subs not used: Cornell, Kasim, Smith, Poole.
Booked: Waters 37, Moloney 52, McWilliams 61, O’Toole 88.
Wimbledon: Long, Fuller, Soares, Charles, Nightingale, Trotter, Francomb, Forrester (Oshilaja 73), Kaja (Abdou 73), Taylor (McDonald 95), Barcham. Subs not used: Robinson, Kennedy, McDonnell, Hartigan.
Goalscorer: Forrester 61.
Booked: Barcham 34.
Att: 5,306.
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October 23, 2017
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