The Dons showed a ruthless edge to win courtesy of goals by Matt Tubbs, former Torquay United loan signing Adebayo Azeez (two) and ex-Gull Adebayo Akinfenwa.
The Grecians, with Liam Sercombe playing as a wing-back, threatened when he cut in from his right flank and skied high with a left-footed shot. Sercombe was then caught napping as Wimbledon attacked down his side, and Callum Kennedy crossed low for Tubbs to turn the ball in at the near post.
City responded with Ribeiro surging forward and creating a chance for Harley, which he dragged wide from 25 yards. Barry Fuller was booked for a crude tackle on Cummins, who fired against a post from the resulting free kick, but things generally were just not coming off for the Grecians.
Tubbs’ brilliant cross should have resulted in a second goal for the Dons, but Azeez failed to get a decent contact on his header.
The Grecians had lost their way, although Ribeiro tried to get them going again with a typically storming run that led to Wheeler turning and firing narrowly wide from ten yards.
Harley then missed another great chance when a deep free-kick was headed down to him, but his effort was brilliantly saved by James Shea. At the other end, Azeez finished off the Grecians when he picked the ball up 35 yards out, ran completely unopposed and unchallenged and smashed the ball past Hamon.
Azeez was replaced before the game restarted, with Akinfenwa replacing him, and Tubbs missed a great chance to make it 4-0 when he headed wide from six yards.
Wheeler fired straight at Shea’s near post, but by then Exeter looked a beaten side. Another Wimbledon counter-attack ended with Pell crossing to Akinfenwa, who held off his marker, turned and fired past Hamon.
There was some small cheer for the Grecians in stoppage time when Wheeler showed great pace to get to the byline and pull the ball back to Sercombe, who side-footed home for his second goal of the season. But it was nothing more than scant consolation for the below-par Grecians.
No comments:
Post a Comment