La Piola, Leopald Road-My review.

I've literally stumbled into some of my favourite restaurants by chance the first time I visited, and so it was with La Piola a few weeks back. I was wandering down to the AFC Wimbledon club shop at lunchtime with my wife, and was famished. Given it was the choice between the fish & chip shop which is very good but Sarah was never going to with for lunch, or a posh looking coffee shop that sells cakes (I would have literally eaten everything they had and still been hungry) we settled on the cute looking pizza place. 

To cut a long story long, it was utterly fabulous. We sat out in this lovely little garden bit out the back, the pizza was ace and the birds were tweeting really loud. That's not a euphemism either, they literally were.

Anyhow given the rugby boy was back from uni, we decided to revisit Tony & Bella last Sunday night. We had some calamari, a garlicky prawns thingie, some cheesy garlic bread, some bruschetta, you know the kind of thing. We had Milly as well as Charlie with us, so despite the generous portions there's never any danger of anything being left over. QUICK NOTE HERE- All the portions here are big, but they don't substitute size for quality, it is all really good.

To drink, Charlie started smashing back pints of Moretti (don't know where he gets it from), Milly had an Aperol Spritz for reasons best known to herself, Sarah was on the vino and I'm still on the alcohol free stuff for reasons best not talked about.

For mains, we all toyed with the idea of pasta (another table had pasta and it looked lovely) but we all had pizza. I repeated my order of a few weeks earlier and had "American hot". The pizzas are big, with fresh dough, and loads of toppings.

We got another round in and some desserts. Two had home made tiramasu which was massive and sensational, I had chocolate brownie with ice cream. We then wiled the night away working out how much money we'll have when both kids have been through university.

The bill came to £142, which is utterly sensational value for a really lovely meal. I've a hunch that one or two local people see this place as a kind of "takeaway pizza joint", and use the old deliveroo for an occasional nibble while watching Ozark. I'm here to tell you though, La Piola is MUCH better than that. The little garden out the back is lovely, the food is great along with the service, and it's eye wateringly good value. If you're thinking of going to Pizza Express anytime soon, seriously give yourself a slap and go here instead, it's ace.

Good local businesses need support, this one is no different. They also do breakfast which although I've never had I intend to, and for lunch one of their salads or starters would fill all but the greediest of buggers. For us, there's pizza or pasta.

Go to La Piola, you'll love it.

Wimbledon season recap 2021-22 part 2. The emergence of Jack Rudoni.

At the start of the season, all the AFC talk was about the new signings, I guess it always is with most clubs after the Summer. Luke McCormick came in and it was instantly obvious that he's a good player, ditto George Marsh. Henry Lawrence lit the place up for a month or two, Aaron Pressley showed fleeting glimpses of potential, while our own Ayoub Assal snarled his way to an England under 21 training session call up.

Back then, few would have noticed the awkward, leggy, flop haired teenager mooching around at left midfield. You'd certainly never have heard Jack Rudoni bellowing at his teammates, or rowing with the ref. He's always had that "such a nice lad" look about him, the kind of young bloke you'd be happy with if your daughter brought home from the school disco. Equally, he perenially has that not too sure about himself gait, like an apprentice who's been sent down the shop to get some stripey paint but kind of twigs it's a wind-up. 

As the season progressed though, young Jack grew both metaphorically and literally (if my eyes don't deceive me). He began to get more sure of himself as time went on, demanding the ball more. In his passing too he began to get more ambitious, he started to hold the ball a fraction of a second longer, to wait for the moment.

It was in his arrivals into the penalty area though that he really started to shine. The goals came at regular intervals, and equally encouragingly there were plenty of missed chances too. It showed Jack was learning, sussing out that moment to get there like a wardrobe falling down the stairs. Sure, inexperience led to snatched shots pulled wide or blazed over, but as the season progressed it was rare in a match for young Jack to not either have at least one chance to score or to set one up for someone else. And all the while the Duracell workrate continued, the tackling, along with the racking up of the stats.

Jack ended the season with 12 league goals, including no penalties or set pieces. He scores all types, shots off both sides, tap ins, arrivals. He's good in the air and scored a few in that way too. He finished up miles clear of all the under 21's in the league for goals scored, and not forgetting (though it pains me to say it) Wimbledon weren't the best team in the league. Five assists was right up there, along with seventy tackles won putting him third in the league. Paddy May at Fleetwood is a good player, but such was the rate Jack was improving at the end that his non inclusion in the League One young player of the year shortlist felt like a travesty of justice.

He'll will be off this Summer, he's not signing a new contract and it would be a crime for him to go down to league two. Whoever gets him is getting in my opinion by miles the best young first team player outside the Championship. He'll end up being a goal-scoring box to box central midfielder, all action, and he is already in my opinion AT LEAST good enough for the Championship.

Infact so much has he improved, even in the last three months, he could well play at the very top level before long. Buyers should form an orderly queue, for a player who won the Wimbledon young player of the year, the Wimbledon fans player of the year, and the Wimbledon player of the year.

Jack Rudoni, worth an absolute fortune before too long, and a small fortune now.

Wimbledon 2021/2022 season review, part 1.

The sun shone and the ground erupted, Dapo wheeled away as he completed a thrilling comeback against Bolton and all was good with the World. We'd already had a great awayday at Doncaster, and to now be involved in a ding-dong 3-3 with one of the big clubs of the league felt like our right of passage. In the immediate aftermath I stuck a few quid on a top six finish, and few who bounced up Gap Road after the match would have laughed at me either, despite what they say now.

So where did it all go wrong (George) from there? How on earth did we end up going 27 games without a win and being relegated with a bit to spare? How could we end up being quite such a disfunctional football team?

Well as you'd expect, with football being the most complicated of "simple" games there are many factors. Over the course of the blog, we'll try and touch on a few.

So firstly let's start with a positive. Every now and then a team, a coach or a player comes along and invents something completely new, a wholly alien concept to the game of association football. Klopp brought us "Gegenpressing", the Dutch brought us "total football", the Italians "Catanacio", while even the Wimbledon of old can claim to at the very least have had a hand in "route one" and "put it in the mixer".

Usually when teams are credited with a new invention, it's because it (whatever "it" is) brings success. I suppose though it fits in with the slightly contrary nature of AFC Wimbledon that we've managed to invent something which although so far has been completely devoid of any points whatsoever in it's favour, at least we can say without fear of equivocation that we were FIRST. We absolutely own this one. Indeed so "new" is it, so "out there" in it's conception, that there isn't even a name for it, in many parts of the football world they've never seen it before. I say "isn't" when really I should say "wasn't" because I've invented one now. So ladies and gentleman I give you, as our gift to the game of football, our invention this season. It is (drumroll please)....REVERSE time wasting.

Now time wasting is normally exceptionally annoying to the team that's behind. It's always been an accepted norm that if you're in front, you'll take ages over every throw in, corner, free kick and goal kick. Your players will go down injured, you'll happily keep pointless posession of the football in your own half, anything to drain the darned clock down, to keep the result exactly as it is.

Well this season, (with no lack of cunning in fairness), we've stood that whole concept completely on its head. How does that work? Well essentially once we get behind WE slow the game down, keep passing the ball around in our half without it having any discernable gain, Nik Tsanev takes ages over goal kicks (and in a recent development actually kicks them out for a throw in) etc. The game disappears like sand through a sieve, it's total genius. Our hapless opponents, expecting a late onslaught as we chase an equaliser/winner don't know what to do with themselves. They don't know whether to come into our half to try and get the ball off us, or just stand there and watch us pass it about pointlessly. 

It's a ploy which the term "lull them into a false sense of security" was absolutely made for. I'm making the assumption here that part two of the plan "then suddenly as they fall asleep watching us pass it around in our own half, we catch them unawares" is the part we haven't seen yet. We've perfected to a tee stage one now though, so watch this space.

Another completely new concept we've introduced this season (which I haven't got a name for yet) is the one where you get in a promising attacking position then reverse. This can be a throw in level with the opposition box, a good crossing opportunity, an attacking free kick even, but from there do we do the obvious? No siree, we don't (once again this is the clever bit). What we actually do is "precisely what the opposition is least expecting us to do" (Stephen Fry's General Melchitt would have a field day here). No we don't cross it, or shoot, or throw it into the box, we pass it backwards, then backwards again, then backwards again, then Nik Tsanev kicks it (usually out for a throw in). Teams usually get three points against us, but they rarely leave the pitch not scratching their heads, at least we can say that.

On the second "cunning plan", I hesitated to put it in as there is the danger I could be giving the game away. That said, the fella at Crewe obviously knew about it as he collected said back pass, went round Nik and sent us down, so the cat is probably out of the bag anyway.

It's been a funny old season though in a funny old game. Part two to follow at a later juncture.

Bowenball, what is it and can it lead us to safety?

So Mark Bowen has been in charge for three games now, what has changed? have we improved? and if so is it going to be enough to keep us up? The short answers are lots, yes definitely and maybe, but let's dig in a little deeper.

Firstly what has changed and what does football under this manager currently look like? Well fairly obviously one of the first changes we've made is that we've significantly simplified our methodology. It's obvious that we're far less concerned about posession of the football, happy to get it forward much quicker, to run the channels and generally try to play our football in the other teams half.

Defensively we sit in quite deep, no more pressing high unless there is a significant risk/reward chance in our favour. We're very compact, the distance between our lines really narrow. Against Milton Keynes at times our "two banks of" became "one mass of", but my hunch is that wasn't a result of coaching, it was just us dropping in too deep for a spell. Generally though we're prepared to concede posession and territory up to around 10 yards into our half (particularly of it's the opposition centre halves who have it).

As far as Nik Tsanev is concerned, we've given up asking him to get involved in the build up. These days Nick launches it nine times out of ten. Further, it looks to the naked eye that we spring back into shape much quicker, using the "do it early" maxim to regain our structure very effectively. George Marsh is of course built for this type of football, and his reinstallment to the team has been as effective as it has popular 

Unsurprisingly, the result of our more circumspect approach is that we look significantly more solid. We've conceded four goals in the three Mark Bowen games (all against good teams) but in truth we've conceded very few chances. In each case the goals we HAVE conceded were avoidable (they pretty much always are let's be honest) and were harsh punishments for momentary lapses. Also, to the naked eye it looks like weak pressing from the front players (most notably Ayoub Assal) has been addressed after costing us the first goal at Sheff Wed. This is overdue and young Ayoub has obviously worked on it.

Going forward, largely in my view because teams commit more men forward AGAINST us as they get frustrated, we've got a fair bit of cut to our attack on the break. Young Zak Robinson has literally been a revelation and a real find, while the exuberance and running power of Ayoub and Jack Rudoni is causing teams problems. Although it hasn't yet paid off in the form of a goal, we're keener it seems to get the big men up from every available set piece then dump it in the mixer, even from throws.

So have we improved? Well those who were campaigning for Robbo's removal ten games or more before he left have I'm afraid got one over on us "loyalists" here. There is absolutely no question whatsoever that we look like a better football team now than we did towards the end. The players look happier, more focused, less confused etc and as a result, LOOK like they care more (this is an optical illusion obviously, they ALWAYS cared). A possible contributor to this, although obviously I can't know for sure, is that the new Mark is 100% the manager on the touchline. I'm pretty sure when Robbo gets his next job that one of the changes he'll make is having his technical area significantly less populated, and therefore chaotic.

And have we improved enough to stay up? Well we've now in my opinion got a real chance. The point on Saturday was a bonus by my calculations, while Fleetwood getting beat at home by Accrington Stanley was massive. I fully expect us to end our non winning run on Friday by winning with a bit to spare at Crewe. We are a much better team than them, and a win by a couple of goal margin would help our relatively decent goal difference.

Wycombe at Home becomes a free hit, then we MUST win at Fleetwood. That's our cup final, if we do that, in my view a result against Accrington on the last day of the season and we stay up. Win and we might even do it with a couple of points to spare.

Get a ticket for Friday. After 24 winless games, we all deserve to be there when we finally break the voodoo or is it hoodoo? COYD.

My review- latitude Wimbledon.

A while ago I was out in Bristol, we went to a restaurant called Caper & Cure & I loved it. It was owned by two young fellas who were really putting their backs into making sure you had a great night out if you visited their establishment. No stone was left unturned in their desire to get it all right, and I remember saying at the time that Wimbledon needed a similar place.

Now I've been to Latitude before and it was excellent, I think I'd just forgotten how good it actually is. We went on a Thursday (Me, Sarah & our son Charlie), and there was not a single element of it which didn't hit the mark.

It's in a tiny little converted estate agents or something down towards South Wimbledon station, jammed in between some noodle gaffs and Ahmed's Indian. It doesn't look anything special from the outside (even the inside to be brutally truthful) but there's something about the honesty of the place, the earnest nature of the way they do stuff that I like.

On our visit, Rod (one of the co-owners) was doing the floor on his own. That includes drinks, cocktails, starters, mains and desserts. I reckon they had 25 covers and the fella never broke sweat, if he was a footballer he'd be Virgil Van Dyke. The other owner (I forget his name) was in the kitchen, on HIS own. He was doing starters, mains and washing up, and once again was all over it like a kid with a cup cake.

The food? There was six starters and they all looked good, so I ordered everything (our son eats like Shergar before he was kidnapped). They were demolished (prawns, calamari and some other stuff) in the blink of an eye, then I had a steak. That was superb, as was the calves liver and the belly pork (we're sharers in our family). We all had desserts (I had my familiar affogato Al whatsisface) and lots of beer/vino. The bill was £206 including service, it was absolutely superb.

Rod told me afterwards that although Friday was full, they still have two tables free for this Saturday night. How can that be? A superb little restaurant doing cracking food and they have space on a Saturday?

Give em a call, make their day. Wimbledon needs and deserves restaurants like Latitude, go. 

REVISITED- "Caper & Cure" restaurant Bristol.

Second visits to restaurants are fraught with danger. Like movie sequels (or even PREquels as is the current trend), "Godfather" aside they're never as good. Things which delighted you the first time can turn into "I see they haven't changed the wine of the week" moments, dishes which were a revelation have something to be compared to second time around.

Given all of that and given how much I loved Caper & Cure the first time, I was almost reluctant to go again. I was happy to leave it as one one of those "remember that time we went to that little place?..." restaurants, where we could play the "you ordered the fish, I had the steak, oh and do you remember the olives!" game. I didn't want to ruin it, it seemed wrong.

Still, I was outvoted (just for a change like) and we went again last night. It is with great relief that I can report that it was incredible. Yes we had the olives, the sourdough with "jamon butter", (kind of butter mixed with ham hock fat, it's amazing), salt hake croquette thingies etc, they were all fab. BUT!, but let me tell you about my starter and main, both off the specials board.

I had crab on toast for starter. I'm not going to waffle on about it, it was sensational. Fresh, subtle and beautiful. Then, I had a whole lemon sole, with shrimps, lentils & stem broccoli in a buttery, creamy kind of sauce. It was absolutely sensational, best bit of fish I've had in a restaurant for years.

Sheesh if this place was in Wimbledon you'd NEVER be able to get a table, it's just a beautiful place to eat. The guys waiting on are attentive and knowledgeable, all jeans, checked shirts not tucked in, Skechers etc. There's a beard or two, the music is kind of funky James Brown, the lights are right, the table spacing spot on.

You MUST go, it's a 10/10 from me. I absolutely love this place.

My review-"The power of the dog" film.

I'm no film buff, by no means one of those oiks who can recite passages from Pulp Fiction, or who claim to have "really liked" Million Dollar Baby. I do like a good movie though, the best ones are like signposts to your life. We can all remember the first time we saw The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Midnight Cowboy and the like.

Over the years I've watched less films, time becomes more difficult to set aside as the kids get older. I do like to keep up though. To that end, the Oscars have become for me the little fella with the glasses (normally called "Pete") in Blockbusters who would steer you in the direction of a "must watch". Whether it was About Last Night or The Usual Suspects, Pete rarely got it wrong. Neither do the Oscars usually (obvious exceptions like choosing Forrest Gump over Shawshank as "best film" aside), so I kind of depend on "the academy" to give me a steer. When a movie is obviously going to win loads of awards, I actively seek it out.

So, "The Power Of The Dog", tipped to win everything on offer aside from animation (possibly). 

The perceptive amongst you will have realised I've written lots of words without actually talking about the film. There's a reason for that, it's shite. It starts off really slow, slows down a bit in the middle, then grinds to a halt before the credits.

I've read some people saying that it "makes you think", (these are normally the same kinds who wax lyrical about the "cinematography"). In a sense they're right, it certainly caused me to think alright. I thought about all the things I COULD have done with the two hours I spent watching it. I thought of hundreds of things, and with the possible exception of ramming wasps up my arse, ALL of them would have been more enjoyable.

Seriously, watch it if you must (and you probably "must" if you like films and want to keep up), but save me the lectures about cinematography and "mood".

The king is in his all together here. Let's not pretend or kid each other, let's just call this film for what it is, bollocks.

My Labour party conference speech.

Too often when I've listened (particularly) to Jeremy Corbyn, then to Keir Starmer & the other potential Labour leaders, I think they get the tone of their speeches all wrong. They flip flop around too much, trying to sound both business friendly and socialist, patriotic & republican. There are contradictions everywhere, anyway this is the speech I'd make if I was one of them.....

"For too long in our party, too long in our country, we've become bogged down in labels. We're stuck in politics bubble speak in which the vast majority of the public aren't interested. 

Our politics have become locked into a binary yes or no questionaire which bares no resemblance or relevance to peoples real lives. If we aren't a Brexiter, we must therefore by definition be a remainer. If we aren't left wing, then as sure as night follows day we must surely be right wing. To the folks who lose their jobs and can't find another, those who have a parent waiting years for an urgent operation or whose kids go to a crumbling state school, labels and catchphrases don't matter. For those people, yes/no tick box questionaires are irrelevant. They simply want someone in charge of the country who cares, properly cares, and tries their best to make stuff better.

And people out there in the four corners of our great land aren't stupid either. Categorizeing those who voted for Brexit as fools is as wrong as it is insulting. Similarly, those who call for more state intervention, more real and tangible support for the less well off aren't day-dreamers, any more than they are rabid communists.

It's time for a new politics, one where we respect not just each other, but each other's opinion and right to have one too. It's high time we respected each other's right to live in peace and harmony, each other's right to be able to live both young and old with dignity and honour.

For example respecting someone's right to start a business, to run it effectively and be given a chance by the tax system is not raving right wing nonsense. We need people to be successful, and when they are it's only right that they can become prosperous based on their efforts. That's how our society works, entrepreneurial people getting on, making business work, providing employment. It's not right-wing nor left-wing, it's common sense.

Similarly, saying it's not fair to sack workers then offer them re-employment on a palpably worse contract isn't left-wingism, it's common sensism. It isn't right, it isn't fair and it should be against the law. 

Saying that we must respect the outcome of the Brexit referendum doesn't make us raving Brexiteers, it makes us democrats. The people voted for it, now it's up to the politicians to make it work to the very best of their ability. No "isms" except common senseism, politicians are paid to do a job, it's about time they got on with it.

On that "making it work" idea, the people who voted for Brexit didn't do it so our fishermen wouldn't be able to sell shellfish into Europe. They didn't do it so our farmers would have to leave crops to rot in fields, so our exporters would see their access to their nearest market decimated. Nor did they vote Brexit in order to rip up the Good Friday agreement and see tensions bubble over in Northern Ireland. It doesn't have to be like that, it can be so much better. Clearly we need to extend a hand of friendship across the channel, to work better with our friends in Europe. This isn't remainerism any more than it's rejoinerism, it's common senseism. It's time we said so, there has been too much brinkmanship, too much showboating, too much silliness for way too long.

The time has come for a serious government, maybe even slightly boring government. That's OK though, if being trustworthy, telling the truth, having  departments which actually function properly isn't very entertaining, it's something the country will live with.

It's time for those that are well suited to a career in after dinner speaking or appearing as a panelist on a game show answered their calling in life. The country needs a rebuild, a new trust between the voters and those in the corridors of power is long overdue.

It's time for a bit of common senseism, it's time for Labour".

There, hope you like it.