Bring On the Dons

Flushed by my success at correctly predicting last Saturday's score, although not the scorer, here's another lame match preview.

By: Steve Tattersall

Flushed by my success at correctly predicting last Saturday's score, although not the scorer, here's another lame match preview.

WIMBLEDON

Clarets fans older than me often point to our FA Cup defeat by Wimbledon in 1975 as a turning point in both clubs' fortunes (whether it's true or not I don't know). Since then the two have passed like ships in the night, one on the way up, the other on the way down.

TRANSFER ACTIVITY / PLAYERS

The post-relegation exodus has left the Wombles without players of the calibre of Sullivan, Thatcher and Carl Cort.

Mark Williams, one of our targets, has come in, along with Paul Robinson of Newcastle. And Michael Thomas came in from Benfica.

At the back, it looks like the Dons will sell Hreiddarson this week to Ipswich for around ú5m, but have a replacement lined up in Richard Dunne of Everton at ú2.5million. (nice bit of easy money there eh?)

Currently they're a bit short up front. Hartson is injured, Michael Hughes their winger is out too, and Jason Euell is on the transfer list and didn't play on Saturday. New boy Patrick Agyemang (who isn't even in their squad on the official WFC site) is playing up front - apparently he looked very sharp, and will no doubt score his first goal against us.

FORM

After some easy victories in pre-season, The Dons' first match back in the Nationwide was a 0-0 home draw against Tranmere. By all accounts they ran the game, but failed to score. With John Hartson overwei^H^H^H^H^H injured, and one inexperienced striker plus Carl Leaburn up front, they failed to convert their chances. Tranmere arrived with a blanket defence away from home.

Dons fans' match reports for this game include comments such as:

"if Tranmere are the benchmark for this division then, once we get our scoring boots on, we are going to win it by a country-mile. You can call me arrogant if you want, but I didn't see anything to be afraid of out there."

Being dominant is one thing and winning is another, so there is more than a little hope for us on Saturday. However, I always feel that Wimbledon's natural gameplan is to sit back, defend and counter on the break, so They could well be more deadly away from home.

PAST MATCHES

http://www.claret s.org/stats/opp/104.HTM

So, never beaten Wimbledon at home as far as I can find. There is an interesting preview on the CISA site at http://www.cis a.clarets.co.uk/nextgame.html

WEB SITES

Official site. Pretty good and well laid out, but cursed with the world's slowest backend database server.

This Is London, the LET's cosmopolitan brother.

Good Fan sites:

It must be Dons

Neil's WFC site

Wombling free

The G's spot

Independent Supporters' Association. Includes a chat forum open to opposing fans, largely populated by inpenetrable "Dons vs Palace" arguments.

PREDICTION

Knowing that I can't possibly get two predictions in a row correct, 0-1 to Wimbledon.

Steve

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