AFC Wimbledon v Walsall: League Two playoff final – live | League Two
Key events
16 min: Walsall go back down the other end. Chang fancies a dig but too much traffic. Goodman, the Palace loanee, eventually claims a long throw. Both teams use them, and regularly.
14 min: Long-throw chance, Harbottle launches for Wimbledon. Hippolyte seized on it. Stevens in the area but Simkin sprawls on the ball.
13 min: So, as prescribed, it’s tense, and an intriguing, absorbing tactical battle.
12 min: Lots of the ball dropping loose in the area; nothing clearcut has fallen yet.
10 min: Hippolyte seizes on a loose ball, and Chang is aware to the danger. Much is expected of the Birmingham loanee.
8 min: A glimmer there, as Wimbledon’s Browne speeds away and fails to find Stevens. Browne then takes a fierce tackle; reducer?
6 min: Good tussle there between George Hall and Wimbledon’s Lewis, who tackles in the spirit of Eric Young and Andy Thorn.
5 min: Walsall force a corner, and here’s where the game can be won and lost. This time, Chang gives it too much leather and troubles the drones over the field rather than any players.
3 min: Early attack from Wimbledon, Tilley zings in a cross, and Walsall’s Stirk does the mopping up
2 min: The word is both team’s managers like the ball to be played long. That’s bad news and good news. The Wembley nerves can do funny things to footballers’ range of passing.
Away we go at Wembley
1 min: Walsall get it launched from goalie Simkin. Not as many fans there as were on Saturday and Sunday but loud nonetheless.
The game kicks off at 3.01pm to draw attention to a British Heart Foundation campaign led by 1988 hero/antihero Vinnie Jones.
Jake Reeves, Wimbledon skipper, speaks. He was around in 2016: “Obviously it’s two different games in two different eras. It’s going to be difficult, we know what we’re coming up against in this Walsall team.
“We have an unbelievable defensive record and we’ve shown we can score a lot of goals. It’s exactly the sort of game that people will want to watch.”
After Tyrece Campbell on Saturday, Tyreese Campell on Sunday, who can be a game-changer?
Just like the League One playoff, neither manager – Matt Sadler of Walsall, and Johnnie Jackson of Wimbledon – makes any changes from the second leg.
Let’s hope for a slightly better game, as tense as it was.
The Championship game had much more drama.
The teams
AFC Wimbledon: Goodman, Harbottle, Lewis, Johnson, Tilley, Smith, Reeves, Hippolyte, Neufville, Browne, Stevens. Subs: Ward, Maycock, Kelly, Ball, Sasu, Ogundere, Pigott.
Walsall: Simkin, Okagbue, Williams, Allen, Asiimwe, Chang, Stirk, Liam Gordon, Jellis, Hall, Matt. Subs: Hornby, Connor Barrett, McEntee, Lakin, Amantchi, Comley, Adomah.
Referee: Will Finnie (Bedfordshire)
How they got there
Preamble
The last match of the English domestic season sees Wimbledon return to the scene of their most famous coup. Not 2016, but 1988. Walsall looked nailed on to be automatically promoted only to lose their way as the season dragged on. Walsall were 30 seconds from automatic promotion until Antoni Sarcevic’s 96th-minute winner for Bradford to usurp them. Here is their redemption arc but the good people of Earlsfield and Morden will be roaring on their Dons.
Kick-off is at 3.01pm, join me.
