Best performance since we returned to Plough Lane?

In Sport, the contest is always better if there's a contrast in styles. A puncher up against a boxer is a classic, as was the headbanded maverick that was McEnroe stomping around against an ice cool Borg.

And so it was on Saturday, the delicately symphonic rhythm of Notts County trying to kill you with the deftness of a thousand paper cuts, up against a somewhat more prosaic Wimbledon. We were happy to hang in there, roll with the punches then kick our opponents in the Jacobs at every opportunity. We came out on top in a thrilling encounter, and rather than do a match report (it's a bit late in the day for that), I thought I might write about a couple of points which caught my eye.

Firstly, we've got to talk about Johnnie Jackson. Much maligned last season by all and sundry (obviously including me), this was his finest performance in an official merch' gillet by miles. Although we won it, we could just as easily have lost it but for a worldie save, and although we deserved to win, Notts County showed plenty enough to demonstrate just how dangerous they are. In the diminutive yet hugely talented Danny Crowley they had an arch orchestrator, both wing backs were very tasty while Langstaffe and Mcgoldrick were as good a front two as we'll play against. Our organization had to be spot on and it was. The management deserve huge credit. I actually thought the decision to go with a narrow diamond and to drop Josh into the half space when they had it was inspired. It asked a lot of our full-backs but it worked perfectly, Isaac and Jack were brilliant.

Can this once and for all dispel the notion that the manager is too rigid? I hope so. I didn't feel that before and I don't now. Yes some of his tweaks are a bit more subtle than switching wingers or bunging an extra striker on, but he DOES nudge things around both before and during matches. I said a few weeks ago that we were approaching the point where we ought to offer the manager a new contract, I think we've now reached it. He's clearly improving and learning as he goes, and in my opinion has the team in roughly where we can realistically expect it to be in the league. I'd say the squad is plenty good enough to challenge for the playoffs, and that's where we are. Quick note here, that doesn't mean that if we don't get in he's done a bad job, it'll be VERY tight. In and around though with this squad is in my eyes a par return. He's doing a solid job, we ought to give him job security.

Joe Lewis? My gut feeling is that the fella likes being at Wimbledon and would prefer to stay here rather than go back to Stockport (who'd have thunk it?). He won't be on a free, but I really think we should go down the back of the sofa and stump up the sheckles to try and buy him. He's a top defender and seems like a great lad.

Connor Lemonheigh-Evans is another really good player. I got slagged a bit for criticizing his brain freeze which led to the first goal on Saturday, and probably rightly so. Yes he paused like he had just remembered he'd left the gas on at home, but apart from that he was excellent. We should try & sign him too.

We should also shake the magic money tree and extend Armani Little and Omar Bugiels deals. They have both been excellent and look like Wimbledon players to me.

Where's the money going to come from? Well we have a few biggish contracts running out in the Summer, that'll free up a bit of cash. I'm not an accountant, but these signings would be in my eyes more important than any incomings in January.

Lastly and obviously not leastly, we've got to mention Ali Al-Hamidi. Our star player is getting better and better, Saturday was yet another game in which if our opponents had had him rather than us, then we'd probably have lost. I think we're at the point with Ali where we ought to be letting teams know that we'll listen to offers in excess of 1.5 million pounds in the Summer. Let the bidding begin THEN. If it's to be January though (which would in my view finish our playoff hopes instantly) then the bidding must START at 2.5 million quid. I remain totally convinced that he's good enough to play at least in the Championship, but the deal has to suit us as well as the player and the buying club.

Oh and it WAS our best performance and win at the new Plough Lane. Utterly exhilarating stuff, absolutely loved it. COYD

Quick scouting report: Doncaster Rovers.

I had a couple of quid e/w on Doncaster at the start of the season. That bet has long hit the bin, they started terribly, had awful injuries and the squad isn't as good as I thought anyway. They do have a quality manager in Grant McCann, but I'm afraid for them only the playoffs are a realistic possibility, even then it's an outside chance in my view.

That said, they've won six out of the last nine in the league. They lost 1-0 at Stockport and by the odd goal away at Barrow, and got battered at home by Salford in a game which they dominated the stats. But they've won the other six, some injured players are coming back and they'll come to our ground thinking they've got a proper chance. They drew 2-2 with Accrington in the cup, but really ought to have won it after being much the better team (Accrington came from behind twice, late on).

So tomorrow is no pushover. One of their biggest losses injury wise is George Miller, the young striker who plays every game. He's still out, but in the towering figure of Mo Faal (on loan from West Brom) they have a very able replacement. The 6ft 5in 20yo is really starting to find his feet, the kid can play. Alongside him Joe Ironside (ex Cambridge) is a very useful and hard working foil. They'll give us plenty to think about when they have the ball. They have a few decent players in midfield, lads like Harrison Biggins, Luke Molyneux and Zain Westbrook are all good at the level, all can hit it from range if not closed town and can pick a pass.

In defence I think like every other team in the league, they'll struggle to cope with Ali Al-Hamidi. Their normal stalwarts (Tom Anderson, Owen Bailey and the like) are typical no nonsense stoppers. They'll be on toast for pace though up against Ali, I suspect they'll play young Joseph Olowu (ex Arsenal) in a central three to give them a bit of legs. The full backs will push on though, they'll not be sitting in a 5-3-2, they'll have a go.

This is a really tricky match in my opinion. Doncaster will provide MUCH stiffer opposition than either Cheltenham or the Palace kids did. Before our trip to concrete city a win here would be huge (and would make a draw there a decent result). I've a hunch that we might not get it though. We've a history of 2-2 draws against these, this might be another.

Johnnie Jacksons contract-The elephant in the room?

It's been a good few days for us, a good few days for the manager too. There were rumblings and grumblings after two batterings in a week, but the good ship AFC is seemingly tacking into calmer waters after two cup progressions in four days. Obviously the league is "where it's at", but if we aren't already into "let's talk about the manager" season, we will be real soon.

The mood in the pub I'd gauge as 10% "I don't like him or his football, I would not offer him a contract" evenly matched by 10% of "Yeah I think he's doing well, keep him on". In the middle the 80% overwhelming majority are the, "Let's wait and see" fraternity. In amongst those are a fair number that change camps from week to week based on results, but in the main they are the "Let's wait until Christmas/the end of the season" types.

On the face of it, the 80% would appear at first look to be the most sensible. Not rushing into anything is not a bad mantra for life, neither is "let someone prove themselves before you reward them". Stick to those two things and you won't go far wrong in this world.

Unfortunately of course the football world is not the real world, in the football world that's not how things work. In the football world, if by now Johnnies agent isn't asking the club for clarification as to where his man stands and/or sounding out other options, our manager should get a new agent. Unreasonable? Not really. You've got a young fella with a wife, kids, a mortgage to pay who doesn't know whether or not he'll have a job in six months. Whether or not anyone thinks he's done a good job is by the by, it's not beyond the realms to think Johnnie will be getting twitchy. If we DON'T offer him a new deal over the next month or two and someone comes in to offers him three years elsewhere, he'll be offski (like Schirofsky). Who could blame him? I certainly wouldn't.

So all talk of "let's wait until the end of the season" is for the birds, it don't work like that I'm afraid. That's like saying that we should let Ali's contract run down then expect him to sign a new one when it runs out. Not gonna happen in a billion years. The ONLY circumstance where the extreme "wait and see" approach makes sense, would be if we end up doing really really badly (last season for example). Then, the manager for sure would sign a new deal, he'd be short on options to do otherwise. You have to ask yourself though, would you WANT him for another two years under those circumstances?

So the extreme "wait and see" is pie in the sky. Short term "wait and see" probably makes sense, but by short term I'm talking January at the absolute latest. I think if we haven't "offered" by then, his agents phone bill will rival a lovestruck teenagers. We are going to HAVE TO make a call, and soonish.

My opinion? (I know nobody actually asked nor cares but I'm going to pretend they do). I think if he continues as he is, we ought to give him the very best chance of being successful. All people in my experience do their best work when they feel secure in their employment. We ought to offer him a new two year contract, and budget into our thinking that if it doesn't work out, we have enough to pay the fella off and shake hands further down the line.

As I've said many times, I wouldn't have kept Johnnie on this season. I wouldn't have, but we did. I've also said and continue to say, if we were going to back the manager then we've got to back the manager. Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp he ain't, but he's doing a solid job right now. If that continues until Christmas, it is my opinion that it is time to back the manager and offer him a new contract.

Whether or not folks agree with me though, the important thing to consider is that the wait and see isn't really a viable nor sensible option. If we AREN'T going to offer, we may as well shake hands and pay him off. Having a manager "seeing out" the last three months of his contract is to nobodies benefit, least of all ours.

Match Report: AFC Wimbledon v Cheltenham town.

"One of these days someone is going to get a battering" is one of the oldest cliches in football. You don't normally have that feeling after being on the wrong end of two four goal maulings in a week however. So my guess is that like me, most AFC Wimbledon fans weren't expecting THAT performance.

In truth the first twenty minutes or so WAS typical us. Our skirmishes in the first twenty minutes are almost always "bloke looks at another bloke from fifty yards away then forgets about it", rather than "kebab shop punch up", this was no different. Cheltenham passed it around a bit, we ran around a bit and the whole thing was flatter than slowly drunk lager. Around the ground, discussions were just starting to veer off onto the merits of Jake Reeves chopping the man bun, Omar Bugiels impressive moustache etc when out of nothing we scored.

Alex Pearce did what he does and punted it forward, Omar did what he does and flicked it on, Ali did what he does and buried it. It was a goal of beautiful simplicity, and like when a 24 handicapper creams one down the middle and says "Why can't I do that every time?", it looked very repeatable but probably isn't. Before long we were two up, the excellent Connor Lemonheigh-Evans putting Tilley through, the wee man did the rest. Tills looked relieved to have "finally" scored one, he hasn't for about three games or something inconsequential. He should worry less, he owes us nothing.

As we took a walk around the concourse in the (as it turned out mistaken) belief that as there were less people there we might be able to get a beer, most expected a backlash from the league one team. Quick note here, the "sorry you can't have a pint at half-time unless you miss ten minutes of football" thing is getting a bit wearing now. God knows how much revenue we miss out on.

Anyway there WAS a backlash, but it came from us. Tills lashed in the third with a cracking volley, Josh came off the bench looking sharp as a tack and smashed in the fourth. Then Connor L-E absolutely broke the net with our goal of the season for the fifth. I know the season is only a third of the way through, but if anyone scores a better goal than that I'll show my arse in Elys window (let's all hope it doesn't happen).

After that they woke up a bit, Josh rattled the bar (I forgot that Armani Little did too) and Ali could literally have scored six. Unfortunately though for us and him, although he's brilliant he can only do it if someone passes to him. On numerous occasions he had a tap-in waiting to happen, only to see whoever had the ball preferring to shoot themselves. Tills did it many times (too many in my view) then Jimmy Ball did it in the dying seconds also. There's not much point in having a top striker if we don't feed him when he's in. It will probably have driven Ali mental, and it is my only criticism of what was a brilliant performance.

Anyway, we absolutely took them apart. "The gold cup, the book festival, Dom Joly (I Googled it), your boys took a hell of a beating" etc etc. Some reflection? Two defeats didn't mean we were shite, and a 5-1 win doesn't mean we're going to win the Champions League. The deep pan Bristol car showroom thing on Tuesday will run its course, but Doncaster at home next week will be a stern test. They are a good team who've made a poor start, but they ARE getting going now. I think it'll be a tight game, the fans need to enjoy this win but not get too carried away. The players might well need us to get behind them for periods next weekend, hopefully we step up.

COYD

Ivor Heller. A Dons story and how I fell in love with the club.

I'm quite good at doing pub quizzes, not answering the questions, setting them. I've been doing it for years. I guess I was a bit nervous at first, but over time much like anything else, if you stick at it you become better. These days I kid myself that the whole thing is quite entertaining, that people actually enjoy doing "my" quizzes. Secretly, I've got this little ambition that when I stop running pubs, I'll keep doing quizzes. Maybe I could have a little side-hustle doing a couple of nights a week to pay for a few beers when I've retired. I could maybe go round old folks homes for free of an afternoon, cheer em up a bit and have a giggle with them.

It's not much to have on your gravestone "He did a bloody good quiz as it happens", but at least it's something. It's my little thing, I really like doing a quiz.

My guess is that Ivor was a bit like that with the Man of the match presentation. He did it every time I went to watch Wimbledon at Kings Meadow, long before I was an actual fan. I love football, would quite happily watch two kids teams if I had the time, and on the odd occasion I took the kids to an AFC Wimbledon game, Ivor embodied (to me) what the club was all about. He doesn't (in the nicest possible way) look like your average compere, and he certainly doesn't talk like one. Just like being able to have a beer in the clubhouse and tell an actual player that he'd done well made me fall in love with it, so did the funny little bloke doing the Man of the Match too. I loved the food kiosk doing hot chips that burnt your fingers, the stewed tea served in two plastic cups which just about meant you could carry it. I squirted on the shite ketchup from the big catering bottles with glee, all of it reminding me of when I was a kid and used to go watch Scarborough with my brother. We cleared the snow off the pitch once to get the game on, me and my brother Tony. There was a picture on the front of the local paper. We had these bobble hats on that my Mum had knitted, it was probably fifty years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. There'll be kids going to AFC Wimbledon games now that'll say the same in half a century.

Time moves on though doesn't it? They've got a plastic pitch at Scarborough now, you can probably clear the snow with a golf buggy fitted with an ingenious front attachment. It doesn't even snow like it used to, time moves on.

Time moves on at AFC Wimbledon too, and so it should. Ivor isn't any more the commercial director bod now, he's moved on and become a freeman of Merton borough. I know him enough to say hello to, not much more, but he deserves that acolode no doubt. What he and the other founding fathers of the club did has enriched my life at least, whatever else they've achieved.

I like it at AFC Wimbledon that even though time has moved on, a certain Marc Jones still designs our kit. He does a brilliant job, does it for free too, so why replace him? Similarly some people who Im lucky enough to consider friends, Graham Price, Xavier Wiggins, Danny Norris etc (I know there are countless others) give THEIR time for free and do brilliant work as well. Why on earth would we pay someone else for the incredible expertise they bring (we couldn't afford it anyway) when they do it for free? It would be nuts.

And back to Ivor. Why would we pay someone to do the man of the match when he did it so well, for free? Now I'm acutely aware that I pour pints for a living and have literally no knowledge of the behind the scenes stuff, the politics and all that. For all I know there might be excellent reasons why the change has been made. Equally, I'm aware that perhaps it's not appropriate to make that reasoning public.

See, I wouldn't ask the question on the blog (I'd stay schtum forever) were it not the case that I was told a few weeks ago that Ivor WAS coming back to do it. I was told by a prominent person at the club, to my face. Since then, I've asked around and that appears NOT to be on the agenda. So am I being fobbed/mugged off, and if so why? 

Honesty and transparency, they are things.