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.
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