Harry Kane leads way as Tottenham dismiss AFC Wimbledon in second half

AFC Wimbledon held out for an hour at Wembley, hit the bar in the first half but were eventually picked off by Harry Kane. By the end the 3-0 scoreline was a fair reflection of Tottenham Hotspur’s dominance in this FA Cup third-round tie against opponents who currently sit 21st in League One.

It took the best of Kane to prise them open, as Europe’s leading scorer in the old year opened his account in the new one with a brace but also showed his ability to drop deep and play as a No10 as Spurs struggled to penetrate a dogged defence.

It is 30 years since that famous FA Cup final against Liverpool, the last time – franchised identity theft aside – that Wimbledon played at Wembley in this competition. Since then the club, the FA Cup and indeed football itself has been utterly transformed. Wimbledon came here as underdogs again, although it is unlikely Jimmy Abdou called Moussa Dembélé over in the tunnel and told him he was about to rip his ear off, as Vinny Jones may or may not have done to Steve McMahon, depending on whom you believe.

On a finger-numbing day at Wembley Tottenham made the usual slew of changes, with Juan Foyth and Kyle Walker-Peters coming in, although the presence of Kane was a nod to the importance of this competition, a major trophy Spurs might reasonably expect to win.

They came up against well-drilled, fast-breaking opponents on a day when AFC Wimbledon were a credit to the enduring strength of English football’s professional levels. Wimbledon’s rescue and revival remains one of the great English football stories of the modern era, and the lunchtime trains north were crammed with south-west Londoners in a state of celebratory excitement over the trip to Wembley, a significant marker in this club’s very pointed grass- roots success.

As the game kicked off in sunshine Kieran Trippier and Walker-Peters went wide and stayed there. Three times the ball was fizzed across the Wimbledon penalty area, each time just away from Kane or Fernando Llorente. Walker-Peters in particular was playing like a Matthews-era winger, although the urge to cut inside to deliver a cross tended to blur the effect.

Wimbledon had set out in a 4-5-1, with Lyle Taylor an isolated front man. There were 7,500 Wimbledon fans inside Wembley and the first moment of concerted possession for the blue shirts on 23 minutes was rapturously cheered, though not as loudly as Kane’s miss at the other end moments later, blasting over after Llorente had laid back Trippier’s cross.

As Wimbledon fell back, Spurs were reduced to spanking in long hopeful shots. And in a way Tottenham’s huffing and puffing here did reflect the absence of those other gears Mauricio Pochettino is still keen to add to this team. Without Christian Eriksen to feed those cute, snaking passes between defenders, Spurs simply battered away at that 10-man double-layer of blue.

For all their deep defence Wimbledon might have opened the scoring just before the half-hour as Abdou hit the underside of the bar, curling in a shot from Taylor’s lay-back that Michel Vorm got his fingertips to. In response Erik Lamela managed to run off the back of the Wimbledon defence with 40 minutes gone, slid in by a nice little through-pass from Kane, but George Long made a fine save at his feet.

As half-time arrived the Wimbledon players walked off to huge cheers but after the break a slight shift of shape, with the Spurs midfield spread wider, opened up the game. Dembélé ambled forward and hit a shot on to the foot of a post. The opening goal finally arrived on 61 minutes. Trippier played Dembélé down the right and his cross was turned in by Kane in front of goal. Moments later it was two, Kane scoring again from close range after Walker-Peters had burst through and saw his shot blocked.

Dele Alli came on for Moussa Sissoko and was booed by the away fans, for complex historical reasons not, it must be said, much to do with him. And with 70 minutes gone it was 3-0, Jan Vertonghen stepping forward and placing a spectacular long shot into the top corner.

Spurs had scored three in eight minutes and the Wimbledon players suddenly looked a little leg-weary as they saw out the game. Their fans, though, stayed put, applauding the players off at the end of an occasion to be cherished for reasons that go beyond the final score.