It was a party-like atmosphere at Plough Lane on Saturday afternoon. The Dons had already secured their League One status for next season following a 1-0 win against Wigan Athletic in their final away game.
For Huddersfield Town, it capped off a disappointing campaign. The Terriers had preseason aspirations of promotion, especially as one of the league’s biggest spenders.
The away team controlled most of the ball in the opening period, including an attempt off the post just four minutes in.
The opening goal came minutes later as Huddersfield wingback, Lasse Sorensen, found himself inside the Dons’ box with nobody marking him. He calmly put it in the top left corner to cap off a dominant opening ten minutes.
The away team kept finding pockets of space in front of the Wimbledon goal, again with Sorensen putting a headed effort wide on the 20-minute mark.
The Dons finally had a shot on goal with just over half an hour gone. Layton Stewart’s attempt from the edge of the box was blocked by the Huddersfield defence and got nowhere near troubling the goalkeeper.
With just five minutes remaining in the first half, the visitors should have made it 2-0. Alfie May put the ball on a plate for captain Ryan Ledson in the middle of the box, but his first-time effort went sailing over the bar and into the home fans.
That was the last real chance of the half. Wimbledon went into the break lucky to be behind by only one goal. They recorded one shot, had zero touches in the opposition box and controlled just 32% of the possession.
Don’s boss, Johnnie Jackson, made two halftime changes. Aron Sasu and Callum Maycock replaced Nathan Asiimwe and Kai Jennings, respectively.
Wimbledon’s best chance of the game came ten minutes into the second half, as substitute Callum Maycock played a through ball to Stewart. The striker couldn’t quite slot it past the Huddersfield keeper – ex-Dons man Nik Tzanev.
Moments later, the visitors broke down the left-hand side. Alfie May didn’t have much to do, slotting the ball into an open net thanks to a dangerous pass across the box from Cam Humphreys—a well-deserved second goal on the balance of play.
A third goal wasn’t far behind. In front of the 900-strong travelling fans, George Sebine coolly rolled the ball into the bottom left corner of Joe McDonnell’s goal. He was played through by Alfie May and just had the goalkeeper to beat to score his first Terriers goal.
In the 72nd minute, Alfie May scored his second of the afternoon and the fourth for Huddersfield Town. It was a lovely, dinked finish after a fantastic through ball from the midfield.
Wimbledon fans will be relieved that no survival hopes were riding on this game. Huddersfield fans will be wondering where a performance like this was hiding all season.
The Don's supporters sarcastically cheered as the home team won a corner with twelve minutes remaining. Myles Hippolyte’s shot from outside the box was deflected behind the Huddersfield goal, but the corner came to nothing.
A string of Wimbledon corners in the dying moments of the game concluded with a penalty shout when centre back Ryan Johnson was pulled down. The referee had a good view of it and decided that no foul occurred.
Regardless of the performance, the Wimbledon fans were in full voice as the final whistle blew. They had achieved what many people thought was unlikely – a second season in League One.
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