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Thursday 03 September 2009 Ryman Youth League, West Division
AFC Wimbledon opened their Ryman Youth League campaign with a victory over Harrow Borough at Banstead Athletic last night. Although a comfortable victory the performance was less inspiring and there will be far tougher tests to come.
AFC started the brighter keeping Harrow Borough on the backfoot in the early stages. THe early pressure came to fruition when a jinking run by Luke Gambin ended with him hitting a sweet left foot shot into the top corner after 18 minutes. The second followed two minutes later as a good run and cross from Josh Ayres on the right hand side gave Harry Knock the opportunity to shoot from the edge of the area, his effort hit a defender and fell to James Cottee who made no mistake from close in. Josh Ayers followed this up with another fine cross only for Joe Jackson to put his header wide when in a good position. On 27 minutes AFC virtually killed off the game when a Corner from Luke Gambin was headed into the top corner by James Cottee to claim his second of the night. In fairness to Harrow Borough they then came back at AFC Wimbledon and gained a goal of their own when the forward was allowed to much room and he finished well with a left foot strike into the bottom corner past Sujit Dadar in goal.
Half Time 3 - 1
The second half was only 7 minutes old when another Gambin Corner found Rhys Turner at the far post, he finished well from close range. Two minutes later AFC had their fifth goal when a Luke Gambin corner went straight over the keeper into the far corner. AFC continued to make further chances but too many times failed to hit the target when in good positions. Harrow Borough got their second with ten minutes remaining after a defensive error. A positive result and some good individual performances as well, although at times we lacked quality in good areas and were sloppy at the back. Against the better sides we will need to perform with much more quality especially in defending area, all in all a decent start to the season.
79) (sub 61)