View from Kingsmeadow, Volume 50: The Need for a Rebound Against Port Vale

Terry Brown's AFC Wimbledon were left slinking, sliding and slithering back to the currently unfriendly confines of Kingsmeadow after an inexplicable 4-0 defeat to Macclesfield last week.

Their opponent: Port Vale.

"Every so often you have to have a reality check and I think there was certainly one on Saturday. Macclesfield played extremely well and thoroughly deserved their victory on the day," Brown admitted to reporters.

The Wimbledon manager found it very, very difficult to pinpoint what went wrong last week at Moss Ross. Was it the lack of preparation? The gulf in skill and class? A game plan that was worthy to be tossed in the rubbish pile from whence it came?

Just what exactly went wrong for the fledgling Dons that gave them one of their most lopsided defeats in recent history?

"The management team here are no different to anywhere else and we will be working hard with our whole team as a defensive unit," Brown explained on Monday in his quest to find excuses for this inexcusable effort. "There is never just one cause for a bad defeat - it is invariably an accumulation of different factors and although I haven't been able to look at the DVD yet, I think my eyes told me enough on the day to realise how essential it is to tighten up at the back."

Last season, Port Vale Football Club—out of Burslem, Staffordshire—finished 11th in the Football League Two. They came into the match with a record of 2-3-0 (nine points) and were sixth in the standings.

"We won't be making massive changes for Saturday's game as this group of players has continually showed their ability to bounce back from defeat," Brown added. "I do believe that this season the results will fluctuate between good and bad and it is how the team responds to setbacks that will determine how successful our season is."

An entertaining contest that went back and forth saw Wimbledon prevail 3-2. Jack Midson scored off the rebound of a Luke Moore penalty attempt in the 40 minute to give the Dons a 1-0 halftime lead.

The lead was short-lived, as Lewis Dodds equalized in the 48th minute for Port Vale.

AFC Wimbledon's Gareth Gwillim took the lead back at the hour mark with a scorcher.

Late in the second half, a goal by Sam Morsy in the 84 minute equalized the match again for Port Vale.

However, Christian Jolley scored a last-gasp winner in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time.

Next Saturday, AFC Wimbledon take on a recently promoted side in Aldershot Town at the Recreation Ground in Aldershot, Hampshire.

Kickoff between the Dons and the Shots is for Sept. 10 at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET.