Wimbledon showed great spirit in recording a 16-10 win in Saturday’s London One South clash at Sidcup.

With first use of the wind advantage, Wimbledon forced the Sidcup backs into errors and, when they strayed offside after just four minutes, Sam Watson-Jones kicked Wimbledon in front.

Firmly in attack-mode, Wimbledon’s kicks were well directed and pressure built.

A second penalty kick a few minutes later, after a typical slicing run from fullback Dave Charles, was more fortunate in that it skimmed the crossbar before being judged a score.

The half was finished off with a try under the posts from Dave Charles from a long touch kick, the scoring pass came from Alex Pye on his return. Watson-Jones’ conversion kick was a formality and Wimbledon had a half-time lead of 13-0.

Sidcup clearly felt that they could score more than this with the gale-force wind behind them but with possession near to Wimbledon’s line their scrum half was judged not to have had control of the ball when over the line.

But after nine minutes Sidcup’s number eight Jon West powered his way over the line and the try was converted by full back Richard Pilgrim.

A penalty five minutes later also by Pilgrim took the scores closer to 13-10.

At about this time the Wimbledon forwards took the game to Sidcup with good lineout organisation from Matt Lambert and throwing from Graeme Symon to frustrate the Sidcup forwards who started to lose their composure.

A yellow card was awarded and Wimbledon’s forwards took the game with a series of mauls and drives to a position where in the 70th minute Sidcup conceded a penalty for offside by their openside flanker in front of their posts.

Directly into the gale, Watson-Jones made no mistake and at 16-10 the margin increased.

In the closing stages, Sidcup seemed to catch ‘white line fever’ with constant possession, players outside unmarked and screaming for the ball and those with the ball failing to score. Wimbledon’s tackling and commitment in this period was as good as any seen this season and the final whistle saw them justifiably jump in celebration.

Wimbledon’s next match is at Cobham on November 28.