AFC Wimbledon: Manager Terry Brown Rues Horrendous Goals Against Crawley Town

League Two: AFC Wimbledon 2-5 Crawley Town

Terry Brown remained upbeat about AFC Wimbledon’s debut season in League Two, despite this thumping defeat at the hands of the league leaders, Crawley Town, on Saturday.

In spite of Crawley boss Steve Evans’ ridiculous pre-match taunts that, “We might be a big game for Wimbledon, but that’s not true in reverse,” the visitors sold out their allocation in what was the fourth sellout crowd at Kingsmeadow this season.

His halftime dismissal by referee Andrew Madley somewhat galvanised his team, who scored three unanswered second-half efforts.

“The goals we conceded were horrendous. I don’t know how many corners Crawley had, but they seemed to score from each one of them,” he said.

“In the first half we showed a lot of character to come back from two goals down. But second half we came out like a damp squib.”

The Dons made a shocking start, finding themselves two down inside just eight minutes.

Chris Bush sliced a clearance into his own net when he routinely tried to clear a corner. Claude Davis doubled Crawley’s lead with a powerful header when he was completely unmarked in the Wimbledon box.

AFC rallied excellently with two goals of their own. Max Porter’s hard work down the right channel created the first, which was turned into the Crawley net by Davis. Jack Midson sweetly struck a low second goal past Crawley keeper Scott Shearer on the stroke of halftime.

“For me, there was only one team that was going to win the second half and that was us,” Brown added.

But for all Wimbledon’s impressiveness in leveling back, Crawley were still looking strong. Leading scorer Matt Tubbs could have easily had a hat trick if any of his free headers had found the target.

Tubbs had to settle for just the one, though, a penalty following a needless handball from young on-loan centre back Callum McNaughton.

Just as in Wimbledon’s opening game of the season against Bristol Rovers, the Dons had valiantly fought back into the game, only to concede a horrendous penalty—and again there would be no way back.

Danny Bulman added two further goals—the first following a horrendous misjudging of the ball by goalkeeper Seb Brown, who had perhaps his worst game in a Wimbledon shirt—while the Dons managed not a single second-half shot on target.

Wimbledon have now conceded more goals then anyone in League Two, except Barnet, who are their next home opponents in two weeks time.

Before that, the Dons head to Torquay and Shrewsbury, after which we may know more about whether or not they have a genuine chance of a play-off spot this season, or if getting sucked into the lower reaches of the table is a more likely prospect.

The fact that AFC go on the road for two successive games may be of comfort to their fans—Wimbledon have lost just one league game away from home this season, compared to four defeats at the newly named Cherry Red Records Stadium.

But Brown didn’t seem to think his team is fazed by playing in front of their own fans.

“If clubs have good away form and bad home form it’s normally the pressure. But that doesn’t happen here. Our fans were magnificent today—we’re down 5-2 at home and they’re still backing the boys. I can’t put my finger on why we are more successful away,” Brown added.

AFC Wimbledon: Brown, Hatton, Bush, Stuart, McNaughton, Minshull (Kiernan), Porter, S Moore, Wellard, Midson, Jolley (Ademeno)

My MOTM: Jack Midson

Att: 4549 (650 from Crawley)

Adam Harwood is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.