JOHNNIE Jackson sees no reason why AFC Wimbledon can’t cause a surprise of their own when they take on Championship high-flyers Ipswich in the FA Cup third round.
The Dons avoided a potential upset of their own last night by comfortably overcoming non-league Ramsgate 5-0 at Plough Lane to book a home meeting next month with the Tractor Boys.
And Jackson believes there is nothing to fear for Wimbledon in front of their own supporters when Ipswich do come to town.
“I can’t wait,” said the manager.
“It’s a really good game for us.
“They’re a big club with big support, they’ll pack out the away end.
“It’ll add to the atmosphere, but it will be the flip of tonight as we’ll be the underdogs.
“We’ll be aiming to cause a shock, an upset and we’ll be approaching that game believing we can do that.”
The ITV cameras were at Plough Lane to see if Ramsgate could defy the odds but those hopes proved short lived once Jake Reeves broke the deadlock inside eight minutes.
Ali Al-Hamadi doubled the advantage before the Josh Nuefville made it 3-0 two minutes before the break.
Wimbledon continued their goal spree when Connor Lemonheigh-Evans found the target early in the second period and the hosts declared on 53 minutes as Al-Hamadi grabbed his second of the evening.
The Iraqi international was replaced 10 minutes later by Josh Davison and didn’t appear too keen on the decision with a potential hat-trick on the cards.
Afterwards he put that down to sheer frustration, something manager Jackson is probably glad to hear from a clearly hungry striker.
“Look, I’m just hungry to score loads of goals!” Al-Hamadi told ITV.
“Obviously I was on a hat-trick, so I think any striker coming off with two goals would have been a bit disappointed.
“It was just normal frustrations I guess.
“I’m over it now and I’m just happy we got through to the next round.”
Asked if he was looking forward to pitting his wits against a side currently chasing promotion to the Premier League in the next round, Al Hamadi laughed: “Not in the form they are in!”
But having already defeated Coventry earlier in the season before going toe-to-toe with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the Wilmbledon striker quickly returned to serious mode to point out there is absolutely nothing to fear.
“It’s a home tie,” he explained.
“Coming here we will make it difficult. We played Coventry in the Carabao Cup and made it really difficult for them.
“We will turn up on the day and I think on our day we are a match for any team, I don’t care what division they are in. We will just look forward to that and hopefully it will be a good tie.”
