TWO GOAL Robbie Earle made virtually certain of another season of Premiership football for Wimbledon and left low key Manchester City entrenched in relegation trouble.
City now have only three games left in which to claw their way clear - a trip to Aston Villa sandwiched between Maine Road matches against Sheffield Wednesday and Liverpool.
Georgian international Georgi Kinkladze was one of the major disappointments as City struggled to display much in the way of, spirit to accompany their sometime's excellent one pace approach. Added to that German defender Michael Frontzeck, started making unforced errors, including the one which led to Wimbledon snatching the lead five minutes before the break. Frontzeck conceded possession to Vinnie Jones five yards outside his area and it was Neal Ardley who whipped over a centre from the right which saw Earle beat keeper Eike Immel with a powerful six yard header.
Georgian international Mikhail Kavelashvili almost retrieved the situation in the closing seconds of the half with a shot which rebounded off Neil Sullivan's chest. Instead, Wimbledon put the issue beyond all reasonable doubt two minutes after the restart when Frontzeck was beaten at the near post from a corner, Marcus Gayle's header rebounded off the bar and after Jones returned the ball, Earle converted another close range header. Five minutes later another sad City defensive shambles - Kit Symons shouldered a lot of the blame this time - gave Gayle the unexpected chance to tee up Efan Ekoku who drove the ball home from just inside the area.
City's response, apart from a Kinkladze effort which was nonchalantly diverted wide by Perry was to send on striker Uwe Rosler, joint leading scorer with 11 goals, and highly rated forward Martin Phillips.
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