AFC Wimbledon 0-2 Port Vale in final home game of season

The Dons' final scheduled home game of the season ended in defeat as Port Vale grew into the game and scored twice in four minutes, leaving the men in blue and yellow in fifth place ahead of the 3pm matches.

Johnnie Jackson made two changes from the Dons’ 1-0 defeat to Gillingham on Monday, bringing in the experienced heads of Sam Hutchinson and Omar Bugiel in place of Osman Foyo and Aron Sasu.

The game got underway at a fast pace but was stopped after only four minutes for a bizarre issue with the corner flag to the right of Owen Goodman’s goal not being of an adequate height according to referee Declan Bourne.

 The game lost its initial intensity after the restart with both teams sharing ball possession evenly between themselves and failing to register a shot in the opening 24 minutes.

Matty Stevens retained his place in the side from Monday's defeat at Gillingham (Image: Kirk Pritchard) That was until Lorent Tolaj latched on to a cross from Ryan Croasdale before firing high over the Wimbledon net.

This strike seemed to spark the game into action, encouraging Wimbledon to flurry forwards and launch a series of crosses into the visitors' penalty area - albeit to no avail.

Hutchinson came closest to a breakthrough for the home side as he unleashed a shot from the edge of the Vale area, forcing a strong save from Ben Amos shortly before halftime.

However it was Port Vale who put the ball in the net soon after the restart only to be denied by the linesman's flag. In the bedlam of the away end, it took both the travelling fans and players, including would-have-been-goal scorer Jayden Stockley quite some time to realise the goal had been ruled out.

Bugiel was brought off for Marcus Browne in the second half (Image: Kirk Pritchard) Vale kept mounting pressure on the home side and managed to score twice in rapid succession. Roughly 10 minutes after his goal was chalked off, Stockley glanced a header past the outstretched Owen Goodman - and this time it stood.

Giving the Dons no time to process what just happened, Jaheim Hedley was played through only minutes later - he took a touch inside and slotted the ball past Goodman to make it 2-0 to the Valiants.

In the aftermath of the second goal Johnnie Jackson, enraged that play had been allowed to continue whilst Riley Harbottle was down injured and clutching his head, was sent off.

Marcus Browne, Myles Hippolyte, Isaac Ogundere, Aron Sasu and Joe Pigott were all brought on for the Dons, replacing Bugiel, Hutchinson and Harbottle, Stevens and Maycock respectively.

None could make an adequate impact though and the game fizzled out into three points and promotion for Vale.

There's everything to play for as the Dons travel to Grimsby next Saturday looking to cement themselves into the play-off positions.