AFC Wimbledon 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion

Wimbledon pushed Brighton all the way but were undone by goals near the end of either half.

The League One side deservedly claimed victory – the Dons’ second home defeat of the pre-season calendar.

Terry Brown’s men seemingly used up all their goals in the Isle of Man at the weekend and only in a ten-minute burst looked likely to penetrate Russell Slade’s team.

But with further encouraging performances from new boys Derek Duncan, Steven Gregory and Paul Lorraine there was plenty for the manager to be pleased with.

Brown said: “It was a disjoined game. At times we got our passing going but defensively we were shaky – a couple of throws we didn’t deal with and the second goal was very disappointing.

“We persisted in trying to play our football. Nobody likes getting beat so we’ve told the boys we want to get a win under our belt on Saturday against FC United and against Fulham in a weeks’ time.

“We will again do 60-30 on Saturday and then after that some players really need to nail down their positions. Not many did that tonight but there were some that didn’t do themselves any harm at all.

“Derek Duncan took a knock but it wasn’t anything more serious than that. He impressed again but we’ll be looking for a bit more on Saturday all over and hopefully the home win we want.”

The game took 15 minutes to warm up and Brighton almost went ahead after Gary Hart’s thunderbolt smashed trialist David Wilkinson’s crossbar.

Duncan’s free-kick was well saved by Albion’s Graeme Smith low down before Elliott Godfrey snatched at his 20-yard attempt.

But it was the other number 11 that broke the deadlock four minutes before the break. Kevin McLeod made the most of sloppy Wimbledon possession and rattled his shot beyond Wilkinson.

The second half chances belonged to the hosts even if the possession didn’t.

After fine work down the left from Duncan, Luke Moore turned inside Colin Hawkins before firing just wide.

Brighton substitute goalkeeper Michel Kuipers almost scored soon after. The Dutchman’s drop-kick was left by Lorraine and the ball struck the crossbar with Wilkinson stranded.

Dons replacement Jon Main didn’t get much luck either. First his powerful shot was deflected to safety when a goal looked on.

Then he was inches away from picking out Lewis Taylor at the backpost. The striker, the BSS top scorer last season, fluffed his lines after Chris Hussey laid the leveler on a plate - unmarked Main heading just wide of Kuipers’ right-hand post.

Adam Virgo showed him how it’s done in time added on as he controlled well and fired into the net to confirm the victory.