And so the AFC Wimbledon bandwagon rolled all guns blazing onto the mean streets of the east side of town, to Ilford to face Frenford Senior in the third round of the Cherry Red Books Trophy.

Pre-match delights were provided by a woman on the gate of the public car park next to the ground trying to stop us entering (we had to lie and say we were going swimming in the adjacent pool) followed swiftly by a tasty Fish Masala with lemon rice which proved very palatable.

Approaching the ground near kick-off time was slightly surreal, the ground being an athletics stadium with orange floodlights bordered on the stand side by a large and dark-looking graveyard and tree-lined on the opposite side with the trees overgrowing the terrace.

Kick-off was delayed by the late arrival of the referee with the Wimbledon line-up weakened by the absence of the likes of Cooper and Bolger giving the opportunity for other squad members to be tried out, indeed Mark Nicholas starting in midfield found himself in the book within 4 minutes after he retaliated to a bad foul and consequently had to watch his step for the remainder of the game. After the refreshing breath of fresh air provided by the young ref against Godalming and Guildford, the usual standard was maintained by an overfussy performance from the man in black who appeared to overlook some challenges but not others and when he did try and play advantage to let the game flow he often chose the wrong time to do it.

After Petty had had an early volley saved, the Dons almost opened the scoring in a bizarre fashion on 16 minutes when the Frenford fullback headed a long ball down the middle past his own goalkeeper and inches wide of the goal. Shortly after, Frenford had to replace their goalkeeper who had sustained an early injury which can't have been helped by constantly having to retrieve the ball from behind his own goal due to a lack of ball boys which slowed the pace of the match down somewhat. The replacement looked suspiciously like an outfield player on the half hour as Shimell's long goal kick fell to Petty whose fierce shot was only parried, the ball falling behind him into the net to break the deadlock after 29 minutes of uninspired football.

After this breakthrough, the Dons continued to pour forward on the heavy pitch and Sidwell had a drive parried before hobbling off injured after 34 minutes, to be replaced by Passmore. On his return to the dressing room, Sidwell found the entrance to the dressing rooms locked and only after a couple of farcical minutes was he able to get inside. Shortly after, the Dons were 2-0 in front after a good run into the box by Sullivan ended with the ball running free for Petty to lash home a close range second five minutes before the break. Lawson was the next to go off injured to be replaced by Oakins, and the former Chipstead player had only been on the pitch for a couple of minutes before he ghosted in at the back post from a corner to take advantage of another fumble from the keeper and planted a firm header into the net to effectively kill the tie.

At half time your correspondent went into the neat clubhouse (shades of Ron Jones in Dons Outlook, an excellent publication sadly no longer extant although both its former editors were at the match) to search for the elusive tickets for the Hartley Wintney game but these were as visible as Lord Lucan riding Shergar so the search proved fruitless.

The second half was not a great deal better than the first given that the tie was all but over once the third goal went in and the persistent rain showers sweeping the ground made the pitch little more than a pudding on which passing was anything but easy. Robson replaced the ineffective Frankum on 58 minutes thereby using the final substitution, and six minutes later Passmore fed Petty whose shot crashed into the side netting when it appeared to most of the crowd that he had claimed another Cherry Red hat trick. Five minutes later, Nicholas breaking into the box hit a cross-shot narrowly wide and just out of reach of Petty who tried in vain to turn the ball goalwards. On 71 minutes, Ally Russell hobbled off leaving the Dons to play the last quarter with just 10 men, not an unusual situation given the team's poor disciplinary record earlier in the season.

The game was petering out when Frenford's Mamadou Fofana broke the offside trap to leave him clean through but Shimell saved well and picked up the resulting header. Sam Thomas for Frenford was also giving the Dons defence a hard time with his close control but without much support from his colleagues it was left for Robson twice and Oakins to try speculative long-range efforts which did little to trouble the goalkeeper.

When the referee blew for fulltime most of the crowd (excepting maybe those who watched from inside the clubhouse) were relieved than a potentially tricky tie was over and looking forward to another away tie in the quarter finals at Waltham Abbey.

The attendance of some 540 was unusual in that it represented the lowest to watch the Dons in a competitive fixture but probably the largest to watch Frenford, but credit to those fans who made the journey.

Although the standard of the opposition was (like Ditton) quite poor, they had beaten fellow Combined Counties League side Frimley Green 7-3 in an earlier round so couldn't be taken lightly, and the performance was professional without being spectacular enabling the likes of Lawson and Frankum another run-out to find their bearings in the team before they went off. Mention should also be made of Stuart May, who made his debut at left back and had a solid start.

[ --- Carshalton Womble, http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/matches/reports/frenford220103.html]