Xemi Fernandez and James Roberts were on the mark this afternoon as a development team beat AFC Wimbledon 2-1 at the training ground in a friendly.
The game was arranged to give some of the players who haven’t had much game action in the first week of the season a chance to gain match sharpness and they did that with a very good team performance which saw Kane Hemmings make his return after injury.
Spanish midfielder Xemi opened the scoring with a good finish after excellent play by Robbie Hall, playing on the right in front of Dutch defender Dwight Tiendalli. Roberts then came off the bench to make it 2-0 with a terrific strike from 25 yards that angled across the keeper and into the bottom right hand corner.
The Dons pulled a goal back in the very last minute but it was no more than a consolation, as Derek Fazackerley told us:
“It was a good opportunity for some of the senior players to stay sharp and for people like Dwight to keep gaining fitness. The attitude was spot on, as was the focus. I thought the quality of our play was excellent at times and everyone involved will have got something out of the game.”
United
Shearer, Tiendalli (Baptiste), Carroll, Martin, Bryan, Hall (Roberts), Xemi, Trialist, Rothwell (Napa), Van Kessel (Obika), Hemmings