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Wimbledon powered into the Third Round of the Surrey Senior Cup, overwhelming Ash United of the Combined Counties League.
After some poor displays over the past couple of seasons in county cup competitions, this performance, played on a very heavy pitch in driving rain, was just what Terry Brown wanted: the team demonstrated excellent work rate, good passing and movement, and some clinical finishing. As he had promised, Brown made full use of his large squad to give some of his bench a full 90 minutes as well as giving first starts of the season to Peter Rapson and Luis Cumbers. The strength of the line-up was evident: only the two centre-backs, Quincy Rowe and Charlie Clark-Gleave, were not first-team squad members.
The opposition sat in fifth place in their league, but with the strength of the Wimbledon team it was always going to be a difficult match for them, and the writing was on the wall after four minutes when Rapson opened the scoring. Rowe added a second with a header from a corner after 24 minutes. The home side, who tried to pass the ball around had a couple of chances which required saves from Jack Turner before a shot from Ross Millard from outside the penalty area beat the Dons keeper after 31 minutes. But any thought of a shock was extinguished a minute later as a powerful effort from captain on the night, Elliott Godfrey, restored the two-goal lead.
Once the Dons had added two more goals within five minutes of the restart, through Ross Montague and Rapson, Terry Brown started to rest some of his first-teamers. Ryan Jackson, Tommy Rose and Matt Harmsworth were given the chance to show off their qualities, and all three fitted in quickly to the shape of the team and tempo of the game. It was no surprise when Sam Hatton added a sixth, and it was left to Harmsworth to complete the scoring with a close-range header following a cross by Rapson.
Having secured their place in the next round, the Dons could forget about this competition until late January, when they would play at home against the winners of the Croydon v Camberley Town tie.
