By Georgia Garnett at Plough Lane
IT was a frustrating Saturday afternoon of missed chances for AFC Wimbledon who lost for the first time in 2025 with their 1-0 defeat to South London rivals Bromley in their League Two clash at Plough Lane.
Corey Whitely capitalised on Wimbledon’s defensive errors to beat goalkeeper Owen Goodman with fourteen minutes left.
The loss ended the Dons’ streak of twelve unbeaten league games and an eight-game unbeaten streak at home dating back November.
It was a fourth win in five league games for Andy Woodman’s Ravens.
In the game’s opening minute, Michael Cheek had a chance for the visitors, but his shot went wide left.
Marcus Browne made life busy early for Bromley keeper Grant Smith, with three chances in the opening ten minutes.
Cheek – equal highest scorer in League Two with the Dons’ Matty Stevens on sixteen goals – followed up his opening-minute attempt with another in the 24th, but his shot was blocked.
The visitors got two attempts in quick succession in the final minutes of the first half from Ben Thompson, with the first saved by Goodman and the second sailing wide.
Five minutes into the second half, Bromley had three attempts in quick succession from Cameron Congreve, BrooklynIlunga and Carl Jenkinson, but none could break the deadlock.
Browne’s shot on 57 minutes was diverted away and then Jake Reeves fired wide of Smith’s goal.
Browne went close with a free-kick in the 62nd minute and Stevens couldn’t capitalise on the rebound.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 76th minute by Whitely, who became the first visiting player to score at Plough Lane in six matches after a mix-up between centre-back Joe Lewis and Goodman
Josh Kelly was next to shoot wide before James Tilley followed forced Smith into a diving save.
That attempt proved to be the last of the match for the Dons, whose loss saw them fall to fifth in the League Two table in an increasingly tight promotion race.
However, the Dons have a game in hand to all three teams currently in the automatic promotion spots – league leaders Walsall, Bradford City and Doncaster Rovers.
The Dons have points after 33games. Bromley are tenth, eight points off the play-off please.
“Stick with us, keep it up and we’ll be fine towards the end of the season,” Dons defender Ryan Johnson said.
“We hear the shouts of encouragement from our fans during games. It does give you a lift, it gives you that extra five percent.
“The defeat stings a little, to be honest. The feeling in the changing room afterwards was a bit deflated, of course, but there’s still a long way to go. We’ve spoke about it in the dressing room and we’ll be okay if we keep sticking to what we know and what we do.
“If we limit it to zeros and ones, over the course of the season, you like to think we’d come up with wins – especially with the chances we created.”
On Bromley’s goal, Johnson added: “They’re both professionals, they’ll look over it again, decide and move on. Ultimately, over the past twelve games though, we’ve barely done something like that at all. It’s uncharacteristic, but one of those things and we’ve just got to move on from it.
“It’s a busy schedule for every team involved, especially the ones at the top. It’s a big three points at stake every time you step out there. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that today, but if we can pick up a few wins and go on another run then we’ll be fine.”
“I feel like we had a lot of the ball and towards the end of the game, we were the ones that were pushing for a goal. They’re a good team though, they fought well and they’ve been solid and we just came out on the wrong end of it this time.”
Wimbledon return to action on Tuesday night as they travel to Morecambe for a 7.45pm kick-off.
Bromley host Doncaster Rovers at home at the same time.
