Alan Bennett gave AFC Wimbledon a dream start by scoring in under a minute against Chelsea on Saturday and the experienced defender just hopes his girlfriend made it into the ground in time to see his big moment.

Irishman Bennett rose highest to head home former Norwich City youngster George Francomb’s corner in front of the Kingston Road end with the game just 38 seconds old at Kingsmeadow.

His family hadn’t come over to witness his goalscoring prowess, however there was one special person he had in the crowd to see him stun Jose Mourinho’s Blues - or at least the likeable centre-back hoped she was.

Beast: AFC Wimbledon's Adebayo Akinfenwa (R) shakes hands with the Chelsea players before the start of the match

Bennett said: “It was a great start. I didn’t have my family here today but my girlfriend was here. She wasn’t in that end though and I’m not sure she would even have been here early enough to see my goal!

“We played well for the first hour and then the changes were made. We brought some of the younger lads on and they brought on their experienced players and in the end they made the difference with John Terry scoring the two goals.”

The Dons were beaten 3-2 by the Premier League giants but put up a real fight against top-class opposition before Terry’s double and one from Egypt winger Mohamed Salah turned the tables.

Two up: Matt Tubbs scores the second goal for AFC Wimbledon from a penalty kick

Bennett had opened the scoring and Matt Tubbs sent the Dons into dreamland in the first-half with a penalty to double the advantage after being hacked down by £12million Kurt Zouma.

Tubbs, a new signing at Wimbledon, the ball away from the former St Etienne stopper with a delicate touch and bore down on goal - a piece of work which hugely impressed an onlooking Bennett.

He added: “This might be favouritism on my part but I thought the best bit of skill in the whole game was Matt Tubbs’ control for the penalty. He brought the ball down superbly and took it across the defender. He had no choice but to bring him down.

Goal! Matt Tubbs (L) celebrates with Dannie Bulman after scoring the second goal for AFC Wimbledon

“I told the ref it should’ve been a red but he said to me he wasn’t going down that route today. If it had been at the other end, I wonder if he’d have done the same thing. Who knows? I just wanted to win the game.”

Wimbledon continue their pre-season preparations by taking on Sutton United on Tuesday, while Mourinho’s Chelsea side fly out to Austria today.

Chelsea assistant Steve Holland said: “They [the young Blues players] are still developing and they are going to be up and down. I thought the game at Wycombe ended on a real high note, with the younger players in particular making a good impression.

Making the difference: Chelsea's John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic came off the bench to help turn the tide

“The team didn’t do as well in the first half. So in terms of what do we learn? I think we’ve learnt to stay stable with our thinking, not to get too carried away when the young ones have good days and not get too down when the young ones have bad days.

“What we learnt in the second half was that in John Terry we still have a player who epitomises everything that is important about Chelsea and winning matches.

"Not only has he been an outstanding defending defender for the club for many years now, but he’s also had that match-winning ability to score from free-kicks and corners and turn the course of a game. Even in a game like today that was important. The two goals have turned what might've been a defeat into a victory."