My blueprint for how I think we can win on Saturday.

First things first we oughtn't to be shy of saying it, we are playing MK on Saturday. Equally, we shouldn't hide away from the fact that they are currently one of the form teams in the league. You can see that in this table, in the last ten matches they are third best, (We are 20th over the same period).

So we shouldn't be embarrassed about recognizing that we have a tough game on our hands. Nor should it be a shocking revelation to anyone to point out that our record against them ain't great.

QUICK POINT HERE: I know that we as a club and a fanbase don't like to acknowledge them, talk about them,  all that stuff. I only mention the above facts on form for two reasons. Firstly, that "ignore the bastards" policy doesn't seem to me to have been greatly successful, it's high time in my opinion we tried another approach. And secondly, form/league position/our injuries etc definitely ought to impact upon our game plan. Let's face it, it would if we were playing anyone else so why shouldn't it here? Moral victories, "we've won already" and all that stuff is all very well, but it's high time we beat them in a game of football. We can do it too, even with our depleted ranks, on Saturday. This is how I think we should go about it.

Firstly it's worth looking at how they play. Their newish manager Mike Williamson makes Pep Guardiola look like a long ball merchant. They play five at the back (which becomes a three), they flood the midfield and they are obsessed with possession. As in the first game against them though, although they keep the ball they won't be scared of lifting it over the top and exposing us for pace if we get too high. They'll fart around with it at the back and try to draw us on so they can play through us.

Here's my first controversial point. I think we shouldn't press high, we should let them have it, let them fart around, then let em come. I know people will be saying "Oh Fuck off you bellend, you don't understand the rivalry" but they are wrong. I 100% understand the rivalry and the hatred, easily enough to know that if by the end of the game they've had 80% possession and we've won 1-0, we will party long into the night. If it was me, for sure I'd "get fucking stuck into them", but you have to pick your moments. If we lose our heads and go steaming in, they'll play through us and expose our makeshift defence. We ought to look for inspiration at a pack of hyenas stealing a fresh kill off a lion. They go in one at a time, nipping in from the side and behind until in the confusion they can drag the prize away. That should be us, let em come then once they get into our half, spring the ambush.

The hardest thing about such an approach isn't the execution, it's blocking out the noise and the fervour to keep your cool. Let's face it, anything other than "Super gung-ho mode" will have our fans howling their displeasure, we must shut that out.* 

*Quick point here, we could help as fans if we DON'T howl our displeasure.

So this is how we defend, drawn on the back of a menu from the Alex. I've included my team selection.

So we stay compact. The moment they come into our half it should be shark infested waters, but if they want to dick around in their own half we should by and large let them. Remember, they need to win too. They'll come if we're patient.

But what about when we steal the ball? This is where I think we hurt them. Once again my tactics board is a menu from the Alex, with a Sharpie. The good thing about us sitting off them is they WILL advance up the pitch to the half way line. Then we kill them.

The two shaded areas are their soft underbelly. The key is to work it into there through our midfielders (not by launching it out of defence) and then we're in business. They don't have anyone quick enough to stop Neufville and/or Sasu getting onto the ball, and from there we unleash hell upon their tippy tappy nonsense. We flood forward in support and score. Defend properly and we might only have to pull it off once. Do it right and we can ping em again on the break when they get desperate, we could properly hurt them.

If it works, we won't be talking about moral victories or "winning already" again, it'll be a day for the ages. The day we celebrate actually beating them, mugging em off into the process. It just seems to me that we've tried everything else, perhaps just approaching it like it really is "just another game" might be a shout. If these were anybody else with that sort of playing style, in this sort of form, we'd sit in, let em come, then go for the ambush. Surely the pinnacle of being "indifferent" to them is just to treat them like everyone else.

Let's do it. Let em come then kill em with pace.

Is a fan allowed to criticise?

One of my best friends said to me yesterday that my match report on the Doncaster game might "piss off" the coaching staff and the players. I hope with all of my heart that he's wrong, that is never my intention when doing player ratings or writing the blog.

I've never been one for booing at matches, hurling abuse at the players, accusing them of "not trying" or any of that nonsense. Similarly, I thought we were 100% correct to give the management team new contracts, I said so at the time and I still believe it now. Those contracts were hard earned, a couple of dodgy results doesn't change anything. A quick note here, I'll STILL be of the same mind if we lose on Saturday.

So onto the football.

Our problems at the moment are numerous, but players not trying, not being up for it and/or having a crap manager are not amongst them. Chief amongst our problems of course is that we've lost the guy who either caused all of our goals to be scored or scored them himself, and we've lost the best centre half pairing in the league. ANY manager is going to struggle to find a solution to those issues, and that's where we are right now, trying.

And so far, despite being severely depleted, our defence has held up really well. Lee Brown has been a warrior stepping into centre half, we've conceded only a goal a game in the last three as well as two worldies at Accy. Despite us stinking the place out at Donnie, we restricted them to very few openings. So defensively we've done really well, those lads deserve a huge pat on the back.

I'm not exactly providing earth shattering insight here, but it's elsewhere that our problems are most obvious. Many people have theories, the one thing we all have in common is that none of us work in professional football. You've got plumbers telling the manager to play James Ball, bricklayers saying play Ryan McLean from minute one, taxi drivers urging the recall of Ethan Sutcliffe, and publicans saying lots of other nonsense. Do they have a right to an opinion? I think they do, such as they are. Similarly though,  the people who actually make the decisions and whose job depends on the outcome, have the right to completely ignore them.

That's one of the reasons why football is the beautiful game isn't it? When Lee Brown passes it to Jack Currie, you've got fat blokes who have barely kicked a ball in their lives standing up to shout "Don't square it you moron!", and when he knocks it long a bespectacled badminton player who works in the NHS ("I played in the regionals once you know") telling him ""Square it you dickhead!". That's football, we ALL have a theory, ALL of us think we know better.

I'm no different, so here are mine on where we're at. It looks unlikely that either Joe or Ryan are going to be back soon, so the "deep lying" defence is going to persist. I've seen people suggesting we should play the new John-Jo bloke. I've nothing against that (I don't know him and have never seen him play) but from seeing him warm up, I'd be surprised if he's a speed merchant. My guess is whoever we play, we ain't gonna be pushing up to the halfway line to "pin them in" anytime soon.

So......what are our options. We COULD push Isaac into centre half (he played there as a kid) and play three in there. That would give us a little bit of pace/protection. Also, that would give license to Huss & Jack to bomb on a bit.

We COULD drop James Ball in there. I've never seen him play as a centre half but he no doubt could if asked. Once again I suspect that'd be as a three rather than a two.

We COULD play three in centre midfield. That'd be James Ball again, or even the lad who is best suited to it, Morgan Williams (whatever happened to him?). With that system, you'd be playing Kelly or Bugiel up top on their own.

We COULD do both of the above. Push Isaac inside to make a three, play Huss & Jack to provide width, play three in central midfield and play with two strikers.

All could and shoulds. Me? I'd play 4-5-1. 

I'd leave the back four as it is, they're defending well. I'd play an extra central midfielder ( James Ball), I'd play Omar on his own up top and I'd rest Josh Kelly (he looks to me like he's carrying a slight strain). Out wide, given the opposition are gonna be playing high, we are going to need pace to hurt them. We have two players that can scorch the grass and will scare the shit out of any aging full back. Josh Neufville and Aaron Sasu come on down. BOTH start for me on Saturday, with young lightening McQueen & James Tilley as first swaps.

We are going to be without the ball for lengthy periods at the weekend, let's not fight against it. We aren't going to be able to string twenty passes together and play through the thirds, that's ok. Our back line isn't going to get much further than ten paces ahead of the edge of our box, that's sensible. I think though that if we dig in, Armani Little rats like only he can, Bally plugs gaps, Jake orchestrates and Omar provides a focal point, our two quicks can get in behind.

We can win on Saturday. I'm not scared of saying who we are playing against either, we can beat MK. The key is having a plan and sticking to it.

Sorry (genuinely) if I pissed anyone off with my match report, it was simply how I saw it. I say this to the players and coaching staff, if you're angry, smash these on Saturday. Then come to the Alex, I'll buy the lot of you some beers. COYD.

My match Report: Doncaster v AFC Wimbledon

When a player has a bad game, in good football clubs we rally round. We chant their names on the terraces, behind the scenes they get a cuddle, it's always been that way. It's much harder when the whole team is as bad as they were yesterday. Who's name do you chant? who do you cuddle first?

Let's be clear here. The players will know it and the manager will know it already, but this was a truly awful performance. It was absolutely desperate with barely a single redeeming feature. We were passionless, totally clueless and what's more our football was utterly bereft of joy. Against a bang average opponent who had little to play for, we were outfought, outthought and outplayed throughout the whole ninety minutes. Our fans ironically sang that we were "coming for" the franchise, but I dread to think what the score will be if we serve up anything resembling this shambles.

We conceded what will no doubt be described (by us) as a poor goal after a few minutes. Defensively it wasn't great (are conceded goals ever?) but it was an interesting one to win the game anyway, a good case study if you like. You can see the goal here:

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/26947/13080346/doncaster-1-0-afc-wimbledon-league-two-highlights

You'll note that the left back skims it TO FEET into the central midfielder, he squares it to the rushing left midfielder, he makes ground before slipping in the striker who scores. It's not exactly Pep Guardiola or total football of the Dutch in the seventies, but at least it's football.  Even if you look closely, at the actual ball itself, there is no snow on it. Contrast that with us. There were aeroplanes from Leeds Bradford being diverted each time we briefly had the ball, we were completely lacking in the fusion and movement we saw earlier in the season. Quite why that has happened I've absolutely no idea, but we cut a very confused and confusing shape right now.

If we had a Kyle Hudlin up top, I wouldn't agree with the way we're playing but I could sort of understand it. If we had midfielders who bust a gut to get box to box, tall athletic lads who were within 10 paces of the football all game, I'd understand it. If we had a lightening quick front man who was bursting to get half a yard and then sprint away for flick ons, maybe. But we don't do we? We don't really have any of those things. Nor do we have pacey centre halves who can compress the play into the opponents half after we've launched it. We don't have a style of play nor coaches which are brave enough to bomb both full backs on. If we even had SOME of this stuff, I'd understand what we are trying to do, but we don't. We end up with our defensive line barely getting ten paces beyond the edge of our box, us launching it to give the ball away, then our opponents playing through our stretched lines and dominating the game. It is an utter shambles, and surely this is not what we are a talking about trying to do before we go out to play?

It isn't just the one game either. The home games against Morecambe and Crawley both had extensive spells of it, here it was practically the whole 90. Maybe that's it? Maybe it's just that here were behind for the whole game so we got progressively worse?

I don't know. I run a pub not a football club, but we need to change up our mindset and sharpish. There are already "tell me again why we extended the contract" murmurs amongst the fans, it'll get worse if we play anything like this at the weekend.

My match report. AFC Wimbledon v Crawley Town.

From inverted full-backs to false nines, football trends come and go. Some things though stand the test of time, they never change. "Goals change matches" is a cliche that's even older than me, it'll be as true in a hundred years as it was last night. On a cold and clear night under the Plough Lane lights, we rammed home the message.

The first half was tight, I thought we edged it but only just. Driven on by their raucous and strangely angry following Crawley were up for it, but we were better. New striker Josh Kelly was excellent, a real handful and there was much promise in his bustling performance. He had quarter chances himself then served one up on a plate to the other Josh, but somehow we fluffed the finish. I love Josh Davison for his industry but sheesh he has to score that. Then, I've seen punters thrown out of the pub with less force than Omar Bugiel was chucked to the floor from a corner, but we didn't get it. I guess this might have been payback for the Davis Keilor-Dunne one against us that Mansfield didn't get, this was at least as blatant a penalty as that one.

Into the second half and we continued to be the better team, even after young Balmer had gone the way of all our centre halves. Omar won an excellent back post header and Josh again couldn't convert from a couple of yards. I've more sympathy for him him here, the keeper flung himself across the line and the young fella will never make a better save if he plays till he's my age.

Then came the subs, the tweaks and the turning of the tide. Few in the stands would have argued with the substitutions before they were made, the captain and Ronan Curtis at least looked obvious and welcome moves. There is no question though that from that point on, Crawley wrestled the initiative from us and were much the better side. My only criticism of the management team on the night is that we didn't smell their goal coming before it was too late. The stench wasn't hard to pick up, it was completely stinking the place out a good five or six minutes before they scored. By then they were playing through our midfield at will, we should have gotten a message on and changed it up. Maybe to a more solid 4-4-2 without the diamond or even a 4-5-1, something. I'm afraid at that point we began to look a bit head scratchy on the sidelines in our response. 

The goal we conceded was a poor one, they always are under these circumstances. The difference of course was that when THEIR chance came, they took it. After that we huffed (I wouldn't go as far as adding a puff) and we were a beaten team long before the final whistle. Crawley were good in the last twenty in fairness to them, but we were getting progressively worse.

As people filed out I heard plenty of "that's the worst I've ever seen us play", what nonsense. What it was was as graphic an illustration as you'll ever see of the importance of scoring a goal. If we take ONE of our chances, we win the game. The trouble is that when you don't, the game can slip through your fingers quicker than sand through a tennis racket.

It hurts, of course it does. We need some operational/tactical tweaks for sure, but we are still a good team. We still have a good manager too, but like footballers they sometimes have an off day.  That's what happened here, an off day. The good news is we can change the whole mood on Saturday. COYD

A few thoughts after an absence.

I've been away for a bit, on the treatment table and unavailable for selection. I'm on my way back now though, in light training (can only down about six pints in a sitting) but it won't be long before I'm fit and firing again. So anyway, here's some of my thoughts from the last couple of weeks.

The managers new contract.

It's excellent news in my book. I've long advocated it (after admitting that I wouldn't have kept him on last season in a month of Sundays that is). This time around, he is quite simply a better manager. Forget all that "It's all down to Craig Cope/better players" stuff, that is a cop out for all of us Jackson critics. I don't do cop outs, I tell it like it is. The simple fact of the matter is he is now a much better manager than he was, and oiks like me were wrong to think/say he'd never make a manager while he had a hole in his arse. He's doing a fine job, we're lucky to have him. Skivvers, Rob & Bayzo too. My guess is Omar & Armani will sign with us next season, and it's because the manager is staying.

Losing Ali was a huge blow, but we had no choice.

If someone comes in the Alex and offers to increase my salary by 1500%, I'd be pretty interested. I reckon under those circumstances anyone's head would turn, I've no doubt Ali's was spinning like a barn owl once Ipswich started talking turkey. Fair play to the lad I love him, but my guess is that once he'd done the Cuba Gooding Jnr line from "Jerry McGuire", it was all over. We had no choice.

Josh Kelly isn't Ali. Then again, who is? (I know, Ali. Nobody likes a smart arse).

My hunch is that we are a long way as of yet from seeing what Josh Kelly is all about. I've only seen him LIVE the once, and didn't study him at all while he was at Solihull Moors. My impression from the one viewing is that he's obviously a talented footballer, has a good touch and that his movement is much better than Ali. That said our star man's main thing was not the intelligence of the movement, it was how quickly he got from A to Zee and how difficult it was to stop him getting there. Clearly our new man is nowhere near so fast and nowhere near so strong, he's a completely different type of operator.

My feeling is that Josh would thrive with little one-twos around the box, would gobble up being slid through little gaps in the defence with ten yard nudges. He looks like a clever striker in a kind of Dennis Berkampish kind of way to me. He isn't going to smash the doors off their hinges Ali style, he's more of a sneak through the gap just as they're about to close kind of guy. I don't think the Omar flick ones are really his cup of Yorkshire, he needs a little more subtlety to really shine. He ain't no Ali, but there's no shame in that.

The road to the playoffs can't be negotiated with SatNav.   

Folks who say "If we don't beat Crawley tonight we're done" are miles off in my opinion. The total lack of "on the beach" teams in L2 right now (mid table fodder who have bugger all to play for) means that everyone will beat everyone. The road will be rocky, we'll lose some games but we'll still go very close. My gut feeling is that if we're brave enough to go for the wins in games when it's 1-1 down the stretch, we'll get home with a point or two to spare. And there's no prizes for finishing 4th rather than 7th either. Anywhere in the top seven will do.

John Kymani-Gordon is a far better player than he himself realises.

While the jury may be deliberating about some of our new signings, I'm not in any doubt about this lad at all. He played a half of football right in front of me down the left side against Mansfield, he is an excellent footballer and I was very impressed. The other team obviously agreed, a fella kicked him over the corner flag in the second half. He came off after that, and hasn't really been the same since.

An observation on the kid. He is easily good enough to be a proper weapon at this level. He could cut inside to recieve possession, take it more on the half turn, hit it, dart in on goal. At this level he could be a Mo Salah type, he looks to me like the only thing holding him back is a slight lack of belief. It's hard to MAKE someone believe, but I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that he is a proper footballer. Go get em son.

Crawley WILL NOT be a pushover. Neither will Doncaster.

I've read people on Twitter saying Crawley at home is a penalty kick. If it is, Ali is taking it. Look at the league table and you'd be forgiven for thinking they are miles behind us. They aren't. Four points behind us with a game in hand is nothing. They'll be coming to WIN the game, if they do they are well and truly in the playoff picture. In Dani Orso they have a slippery little bugger of a striker.

Donny are in my opinion THE biggest underperforming team in the league relative to their squad strength. They have some excellent players and should be much higher. They are just starting to show signs of clicking though (they smashed Grimsby 5-1 away on Saturday). 

Neither team will be a pushover. Four points would be an excellent return.

Anyway, enjoy the game tonight and at Donny. I'll be at both, see you there and COYD.