Today it was a visit to Ship Lane, the home of Thurrock as they took on the "real" Wimbledon, who continue their remarkable rise up the pyramid. At the start of play Wimbledon sat top of the Conference South and needed the three points to maintain their promotion push, whilst Thurrock were third bottom and needed the points just as badly, for different (obvious) reasons. Sadly for the paying punters, of which there were over 1,000 the game turned out to be a pretty drab affair, which Wimbledon won by virtue of a free kick six or five minutes from time, depending on who you believe! (More on that later).
In the first half The Dons had most of the possession but did little to threaten the Thurrock 'keeper. However despite the away teams dominance the best chances fell to Thurrock, during a six minute spell before half time. David Bryant beat the offside trap but lobbed his shot over the bar, Craig Hughes shot tamely in the arms of 'keeper with the goal at his mercy and the final chance was a shot by Sam Lechmere which was brilliantly saved by James Pullen. Thurrock should have been in front at the interval and how those missed chances would come back and haunt them.
The second half continued in similar fashion with Wimbledon dominating proceedings but Thurrock held firm, with centre back Rob Swaine absolutely outstanding. However in the 84th or 85th minute Thurrock conceded a needless free kick and Sam Hatton fired it home via a wicked bounce in front of the keeper, which gave him no chance, to give Wimbledon an undeserved win. Thurrock were good value for a point but sadly for them it wasn't to be. The victory put Wimbledon 9 points clear at the top and they look nailed on certainties to clinch promotion to the top tier of the non-league football.
Anyhow the reason for the ambiguity of the goal time is that muggins here bought three "golden goal" tickets and guess what? One of them was 85 minutes! Thank you very much and I hearby claim my £20...or so I thought. Obviously a mate of whoever the organiser was must have had 84 minutes as that what Thurrock officials insisted the goal time was. Every other media outlet the following day had the goal listed as 85 minutes. Oh well another hard luck tale in the life of a groundhopper...moral of the tale don't buy a golden goal ticket off f****n' mockneys!!
Saturday 21st February 2009
Conference South
Thurrock 0-1 AFC Wimbledon
Attendance: 1,173
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