Tonbridge 0 AFC Wimbledon 3

Match 04/08/688 - Saturday, 2nd August 2008 - Pre-Season Friendly

Tonbridge (0) 0
AFC Wimbledon (2) 3 Main 2, 10, 54
Att. 445

Entrance: £8
Programme: 50p
Mileage: 26/185

Match Report

Tonbridge are my light of optimism for this coming season. They finished last term strongly, charging into a play-off spot with three games to go, only to miss out on the final day. They have the feel of a club on the ascent. The old stand that was brought from the Angel Ground more than 25 years ago has this close season been filled with 600 seats and it looks the part.

On the pitch there has been significant investment made. Tonbridge have benefited from the Lewes fall-out with Jamie Cade, Leon Legge and an impressive young full-back Lewis Hamilton being drafted in. The Olurunda brothers, Tim and Ade (pictured) have arrived from Hastings along with keeper Lee Worgan. On paper the squad looks significantly stronger. On the grass we will see.

This pre-season friendly was part of the transfer deal that took Jon Main to AFC Wimbledon last season and, of course, Mainy was not going to let the opportunity pass to show us what we have been missing. Not that we didn’t know.

Just two minutes were on the clock when he latched onto a very poor back pass from Simon Glover to slip the ball past Worgan. Ten minutes later and his sharpness of foot and mind were evident as he received a pass between the two central defenders and was brought down rounding the keeper. Jon Main executed the penalty himself. A hat trick was sealed in the second half when he tapped home following a good save by Worgan. Main is a real class act and we will be watching with interest to see just how well he and AFC do in Conference South this year.

In between the Jon Main show Tonbridge actually did OK. Several half chances were created and Legge should have done better with a first half header. Similarly, a second half header from the ever-complaining Carl Rook should have made the keeper work. Rook and Ade Olurunda’s partnership needs time to gell and never quite came off today. Defensively, Legge looks like a footballing centre-half, but his partnership with Donovan is going to lack pace that might be exposed and Glover looks like a midfielder playing at full back. But overall, Tonbridge are not going to come up against the likes of AFCW every week and there was enough to suggest that the high expectancy is not over-hyped.