My match report: AFC Wimbledon v Morecambe.

Sometimes I get accused of being too positive as far as AFC Wimbledon games are concerned, but on a mild Autumnal night I'd defy anyone not to have been impressed by the Home team yesterday. In a performance riddled with power, strength and precision they completely dismantled Derek Adams' Morecambe brick by brick. It's a rare thing in football when a team just beaten 3-0 thinks they've dodged a bullet, but for the men in red they'll have gotten on the bus home knowing it could have been a whole lot worse. Aside from a fifteen minute spell at the end of the first half when we allowed the tempo to drop and Morecambe to get over the half way line, we were utterly dominant.

All that said, it took surely the best goal scored at the new Plough Lane to break the deadlock. James Tilley has been threatening a breakout moment for a few weeks now (I gave him MOM on Saturday when he was superb), but even his admirably loyal Mrs surely couldn't have forseen this. Picking the ball up wide left he sluiced inside & hit it off his "weaker" right side from fully thirty yards out. It wasn't funnily enough the fact the ball arrowed into the top corner of the net which will stick in my memory forever, it's the actual flight of the football. It just kept going, and going, and going. Like a ski jumper who seems to defy gravity in the last ten metres of his jump, it just seemed to not want to stop. Good thing the net is there & the stand behind, it would probably have hit somebody on the back of the head hanging their washing out, in Kingston. It was a stunning goal from a player who is right back to his very best, it's great to see.

Just when you thought that you wouldn't see anything of that quality for the rest of the season, Ali Smith produced a pass which Kevin De Bruyne would have included on his "My greatest moments" CD for the second. It was a caressed and side footed fizzer which hugged the turf, ripped between two defenders and then once the backspin turned into sidespin, came to an abrupt halt right on the line for Josh Neaufville to put Omar Bugiel in for the finish. It was a beautiful moment from a player who turned in an imperious performance on the night. I know he's on loan and in his last year, but our only chance of keeping this lad is to go all in first, before the other clubs have realised how big the pot ACTUALLY is. We should offer Lincoln 50K (Which surely they couldn't refuse) and make this lad an offer he can't refuse. We should do it January, he is too good for League Two so let's do a Joe Lewis and kidknap him before everyone realises.

There was magnificence everywhere. The tenacious Matty Stevens added a third, James Ball looks like he's always been a centre half, Joe Lewis got a deserved standing ovation, the midfield three were all brilliant and even Owen Goodman, not wanting to get left out, made an astounding save at the end.

This is a PROPER good team, I think we'll go to Port Vale on Saturday and win.

Fine margins, all that jazz.

As I've gotten older, I've learned to still enjoy a game of football, even when we lose. That was the case as we went down 1-0 to Notts County today, and I enjoyed it despite learning next to nothing I didn't already know.

I knew for instance that Alex Bass was a good goalkeeper. He demonstrated the fact often enough to win the man of the match here, but I already knew it anyway. Equally, anybody who knows anything about football knew already that if you miss a hatful of chances, the football Gods have a habit of making you pay. Not only do you pay, but the Gods rub your nose in it by having you concede a goal of truly comedic quality. I knew all of that already, but anybody who didn't before this game does now.

Let's be clear though, missed chances aside we were absolutely excellent here. The first half in particular was a magnificent performance against an excellent team, the best I've seen from us this season by quite a way. We utterly bossed the first 45 minutes and had we gone in two or three up, Notts County could have had no complaints.

Inevitably being one of the best teams in the league and given the fact they were playing at Home, County improved a lot in the second half. Even then though, despite them coming right back into it we still had our moments. At the back, we continued to look as solid as a bank vault (thanks to some brilliant interventions from James Ball, Riley Harbottle & Ryan Johnson). This was bodies on the line defending of the highest order, then just as I was patting myself on the back for my after ten minutes "0-0 bet", a calamity occured.

I've played in and watched enough football matches to know that things aren't as easy as they look, obvious mistakes not so obvious in the heat of battle. Owen Goodman though looked to me like he got kind of wrongfooted by a header bouncing towards him. Whether it was the striker directly in front of him swinging and missing which deceived him or whether it bounced like a Shane Warne ripper I'm not sure, but something confused him and the defenders and it trickled in. In fairness to our young goalie he redeemed himself with a brilliant save down on his left side moments later, but the goal knocked the stuffing out of us for a good ten minutes or so.

There was still time for us miss the most golden of chances when Josh Kelly got his legs platted and couldn't quite capitalize on his anticipation to intercept a back pass. Again, no blame being dished out here, stuff like that happens. He made the chance himself by getting there in the first place, sometimes they just don't go in. You could though sense the collective groan as it felt that it just wasn't going to be our day, and so it proved.

There is NOTHING though to be gained from belly button rummaging after this game. I don't care how big the bit of fluff you pull out is or what you tell me about our away record, we were excellent here and deserved at least a point.

Notts County were good too, that's because they ARE good. They are certs to be in the top seven, on this evidence so are we. And that's what you get when two excellent teams play each other and there's nothing between them, fine margins decide it. We came out on the wrong side of it today, but if we play like THIS away from home every time, we'll win LOADS of football matches. 

COYD

So. Where are we at?

After a bit of an enforced layoff (I'm talking me not any of the players) I'm back at it again, ready to do the home games and only a few weeks from going on the road again. Fortunately due to the wonders of technology I've seen all the games, but obviously you can't beat being there.

So anyways it won't surprise anyone to hear that I think this is by a distance the best team I've seen during my brief time as a Womble. Right now we look incredibly solid and well drilled, we're probably only a "find a bit of fluency away from home" pill away from launching a top three challenge. 

It equally goes without saying that I haven't agreed with every selection and tactical nuance. I'd love to see young Morgan Williams being given more minutes, I prefer Furlong at left back to Tilley, and I'd love to see us commit more men forward away from home. That said, the midfield is working perfectly well without young Morgan and James Tilly has been a revelation at left back, so what do I know?

The goals and threat thing away from home is probably just about the only aspect of our play which has been slightly lacking. Even then, for the most part we've managed to cobble together a chance or two, and in both of the games we've lost we could conceivably have won them. Fortunately our defence is so good that if we score we normally win, so it's only the slightest of adjustments that is needed.

Quick note on the defence. Riley Harbottle has been magnificent since he came in, Joe Lewis a colossus. Joe in paricular must surely be attracting interest from clubs with money, but it wouldn't surprise me if Harbottle is too. And it says it all about young Isaac Ogundere that he every inch looks like he belongs alongside them. What a cracking footballer he is turning out to be. Down the sides Tills or Furlong are doing great, and at right back Josh and Huss have definitely "got this".

Quick mention for the goalie too. I'll confess to having had doubts at first, but he is the latest in a long line of stoppers that Bayzo seems to have improved out of all recognition.

In midfield young Maycock looks to me like he's got it, I'm over the moon that James Ball is finally getting the opportunity to show what a good player he is. Jake Reeves continues to be the Gary Kasparov of league two, while Myles Hippolite has confirmed with bells on the early suspicion that he's a central midfielder these days. The most exciting of all though could be Ali Smith. I'd bemoaned the fact that he was "just" playing decent as he looks like a lad who is too good for the level to me. Well apparently he rammed it down my throat on Saturday where everyone who went said he was magnificent. He had a tough afternoon against Danny Meyer (who must be close to being the best midfielder in the league) but by the next time he runs into the Fleetwood schemer, our man has it in him to have improved beyond the ex Plymouth man.

Up top Omar continues to shine (and Jeez how good was he at Newcastle?). So does everyone else though, Matty Stevens cementing his spot as first choicer with a hat trick on Saturday. Pigs continues to have that poachers instinct, and while Josh Kelly has arguably found it a frustrating start, his movement is too good and too clever to fail if we start to play slightly more progressive football.

And Johnnie Jackson? Well he and his coaches will be well and truly coming up on the radar of bigger clubs. Our man has improved vastly from when he first started and is now in my view ready to go up the ladder. Hopefully before that, he goes he gets promotion with Wimbledon.

COYD