Marcus Braddock previews the weekend's trip to The Cherry Red Records Stadium
This week has seen all sorts of speculation in the local press and amongst the fan-base about our form and some of our recent performances. I'm not going to add to that, but the form of our opponents has because Wimbledon have the second worse home record in League One with just one win and one draw in eight games at The Cherry Red Records Stadium. That ratchets the pressure up for Town as we are the worst performing away team in the division with just three points from draws against Doncaster, Portsmouth and Walsall. Wimbledon last won on September 29th when they beat a similar Oxford team to the one that beat us last weekend so that might instil a little confidence in the home team although the fact that they've scored just once in their three games since may not.
Top Scorer (Cup goals in brackets)
Joe Pigott 4 (2)
Kwesi Appiah 2
Scott Wagstaff 2
Clean Sheets (league one)
One at home and three from away games. Last clean sheet: September 8th, Gillingham 0-1 Wimbledon.
Stats (Home team)
Points per game at home: 0.5.
Goals conceded per game: 1.75.
Goals scored per game: 0.88
Wimbledon have conceded 7 goals in each half of home games this season.
The 15 minutes before half time have been the most prolific for away teams with four conceded.
The Dons have scored three goals in the first half of home games this season and four in the second half.
Referee - Lee Collins from Surrey. Games this season:5. Yellow Cards: 10. Red Cards: 1.
Assistants: Stuart Butler and Thomas Ramsey.
Fourth Official: Christopher Wade.
Squad News
Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley has had good news this week with the return of Andy Barcham and Anthony Wordsworth to boost his forward options. Tyler Garrett has also returned to training this week but fellow defender Will Nightingale is unlikely to feature.
John Askey has no new injury concerns.
Summary
Although our away record doesn't make great reading, there is some firm evidence that we can travel and play well. The three teams we've drawn against are all in the top ten and on each occasion we were unlucky not to come home with a little more. Wimbledon can point toward their home win against Oxford in their last five games to give them hope but I wonder if a draw might be the most likely result this weekend with both teams playing cautiously to avoid defeat.
COYB!!!