Sometimes in football you don't get what you deserve, that was the case at Plough Lane on Boxing day for both Sutton & AFC Wimbledon. The simple fact of the matter is we are severely flattered by a 1-0 defeat, neither team got their just desserts. Had it not been for Alex Bass's heroics, this could literally have given our neighbours an aggregate win "over two legs" after our 3-0 smashing of them in the early season.
So what went wrong? How DID we come third in a two horse race (we weren't good enough for second) and what could we have done different?
Well first things first. We have been excellently managed for quite a while now and the players have been brilliant. I haven't lost any belief after one game (and remember my "potential top three/playoff certainties if we keep Ali" prediction) but if this is to be a blip rather than a bliiiiiiip, it's best we nail what went wrong and do it quick.
So let's start with the team selection. Nearly all observations here are WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. Pearcy had huge problems with Harry Smith, and obviously huge problems with anything in behind. Smith played probably the best he has all season in fairness and it's debatable whether a non match fit PK would have done much better. That said, having Alex Pearce in the back four at home does provide a bit of a handbrake to any forward momentum. The fact we hugely missed Joe Lewis was never going to be breaking news, but is it possible we could have mitigated by perhaps playing three midfielders central with James Ball as a 4?
Ball I think is long overdue a game (I mean REALLY overdue), while it's fair to say that bringing Tilley and Neufville into the team didn't work at all. It may have been more productive if we'd got going, but we didn't and it categorically wasn't.
Our approach and body language was awful. We had the distinct look of a team who thought victory was inevitable, that it wouldn't matter overly if we lost a few early 50/50's. It always matters and it did here, we ended up being second to everything. Third sometimes, they had TWO blokes getting there before any of ours. They wanted it more. It hurts footballers when you say that, but I'm afraid it's true on this occasion.
And we reverted to slowing the game down at every opportunity. Quite why that was, when we are (in my opinion) always a better team when we play with high tempo is a mystery. Plus, I should think being a big, physical set-piece team they would like nothing better than the game to broken down into bite sized chunks. So why we'd slow it down is puzzling to me. Slow it down we did though, every throw in, free kick, goal kick and corner saw the captain imploring the taker to slow it down. Utterly baffling (as I say, to me anyway).
Against route one teams it's always been a given that you mustn't get drawn into playing their game. Like a boxer fighting a brawler, if it turns into a battle the brawler always wins and it was no surprise to discover that Sutton are far better at route one than we are. Unfortunately we got sucked into it and we got beaten up. Not many teams will beat Sutton at their own game.
But it IS only one game (thank God). Hopefully it's the proverbial kick up the arse that the players and the management will benefit from. No game in League Two is a given, we should have known that. We should have prepared better today, we should have been more at it. Equally though, we should have made our substitutions earlier, we ought to have recognized the fact that we were in the shite much earlier than we did. To me it was very obvious before the first half was over that things were going seriously pear shaped. It was a day for casting aside predictable "wait until after the hour" substitions, we left it far too late. Obviously it's just my opinion but there it is.
We ARE though still a good team, and we STILL have a good manager. This was a bad day at the office equivalent to the office burning to the ground, with Boris the office cat still inside, but we can rebuild.
It must start on Friday. At it from minute one, fast tempo, and absolutely smash Colchester. COYD.
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