Match Report: AFC Wimbledon v Forest Green.

Not often, but sometimes a draw in a game of football is pretty close to being spot on the fairest result. I think that was the case at a Plough Lane today bathed equally in monsoon and mugginess. 

Wimbledon started much the better, and I guess the one criticism you might level at us today is that we weren't ruthless enough. Had we been a couple of goals up before James Ball put us in front with a fine header, few would have been surprised. I suppose staunch Forest Green fans would be saying "hang on, we hit the post!" Or "What about that worldie save your goalie made?", but they wouldn't deny we bossed the first half.

No doubt though that in the second period they came back into it. Yes we had a couple of glaring chances, their keeper made a great save from Ali, but you could smell the goal coming before it did.

Troy Deeney made a difference when he came on in fairness. Despite looking like he'd just polished off the MyPie leftovers before having a half hour chinwag with Alex Pierce prior to appearing, he can still play. He began to barrel around with increasing purpose, and despite suspicions of offside toook his goal well.

There was still time for both teams to have a couple more chances. We could easily have won it, but then we could easily have lost it too. As it was, a draw was a fair enough result for what was in truth a bloody good game of football. I really enjoyed it, and I'm proud of this Wimbledon team.

Believe your eyes, we are a proper football team.

I like to open up with a bit of a statement, so here goes. If we continue to play in exactly the same fashion as we have in the first four games, we will win the league. Now before you all start putting together a Just giving page to fund me getting carted off by the men in white coats, just think about it for a second. We are currently picking up exactly two points a game (title winning form), we're unbeaten, we've only conceded one goal and we're now scoring freely (all ditto). When you add in that we've missed two crucial penalties and that our one concession was a deflected fluke, it becomes even more apparent that right now, we are a proper football team.

Easy start? Not a bit of it. We've played the supposed title favourites and shaded it in our only home game, gone to Grimsby and deserved our point (could have won it), then battered Colchester away and then smashed Sutton in the away game everyone dreads. Easy? You're having a laugh.

That's why I so vehemently disagreed when someone told me last night that we are "looking like a top ten team". Nowhere near, the league doesn't lie and right now, we are one of the best three teams in the league.

"So you're saying we're going to win the league now? After saying we should have sacked the manager last season?". Well no, not quite. What I'm saying is that we currently are in title winning form. Obviously we will lose matches, obviously we will have dodgy spells, obviously others will go on a run, but right now we are bloody good.

And what's it all down to? Well it's clear and obvious to everyone who's seen us play that we've recruited some bloody good players. Jake Reeves is a magician at the level, young Tilley another standout, while the two Stockport lads and the goalkeeper have made us a completely different proposition. So the recruitment has been very good (and we assume that's on Craig Cope) but there's something else going on here too.

Speaking as someone who was solidly in the "Jackson out" camp and made no secret of it, it would be churlish, childish and another "ch" word of which I cannot think of right now to not give credit where it's due. Building a good team of new players in a few weeks isn't easy, the manager, Skivvers, Rob & Bayzo deserve massive credit. Because not only have we recruited well, but there is something else going on here. It is an undeniable and immediately obvious fact that we are well drilled, well organized and supremely well motivated. That stuff doesn't happen by accident, nor does the obvious togetherness and spirit which saw the players rallying round Ali after he hit the bar yesterday. 

So our management team (and then by definition Johnnie Jackson) have done a superb job. It is looking increasingly likely that the decision to NOT listen to people like me is going to prove the correct one. When you have as many opinions as I do it is a certainty that you'll get it wrong sometimes, hopefully that continues to be the case here. I'm never happier than when someone sticks it up their critics then gets up off the canvas to win when all looked lost. It's even sweeter when it's me on the receiving end.

So will we win the league? Well the obvious and boring answer is that I don't know. My suspicion is that some of the deeper squads and pockets below us will utilize their power to reel us in. There'll be teams which have changed lots of players and started slowly that will gradually get the hang of things (that's the normal way, why we have been so impressive). It's not my suspicion but a statement of fact that we won't always play as well as we are right now. We'll lose games, get injuries, be unlucky, maybe lose players in the transfer market, there'll be choppier waters ahead.

So no I'm NOT saying we will win the league. I'm not even saying we will make the play-offs (although that looks more likely to me than my pre season prediction of 14th being correct).

I AM saying though that we are a good team. Don't rub your eyes, believe them. We are a bloody good side.

La Piola, Leopald Road-My review.

I've literally stumbled into some of my favourite restaurants by chance the first time I visited, and so it was with La Piola a few weeks back. I was wandering down to the AFC Wimbledon club shop at lunchtime with my wife, and was famished. Given it was the choice between the fish & chip shop which is very good but Sarah was never going to with for lunch, or a posh looking coffee shop that sells cakes (I would have literally eaten everything they had and still been hungry) we settled on the cute looking pizza place. 

To cut a long story long, it was utterly fabulous. We sat out in this lovely little garden bit out the back, the pizza was ace and the birds were tweeting really loud. That's not a euphemism either, they literally were.

Anyhow given the rugby boy was back from uni, we decided to revisit Tony & Bella last Sunday night. We had some calamari, a garlicky prawns thingie, some cheesy garlic bread, some bruschetta, you know the kind of thing. We had Milly as well as Charlie with us, so despite the generous portions there's never any danger of anything being left over. QUICK NOTE HERE- All the portions here are big, but they don't substitute size for quality, it is all really good.

To drink, Charlie started smashing back pints of Moretti (don't know where he gets it from), Milly had an Aperol Spritz for reasons best known to herself, Sarah was on the vino and I'm still on the alcohol free stuff for reasons best not talked about.

For mains, we all toyed with the idea of pasta (another table had pasta and it looked lovely) but we all had pizza. I repeated my order of a few weeks earlier and had "American hot". The pizzas are big, with fresh dough, and loads of toppings.

We got another round in and some desserts. Two had home made tiramasu which was massive and sensational, I had chocolate brownie with ice cream. We then wiled the night away working out how much money we'll have when both kids have been through university.

The bill came to £142, which is utterly sensational value for a really lovely meal. I've a hunch that one or two local people see this place as a kind of "takeaway pizza joint", and use the old deliveroo for an occasional nibble while watching Ozark. I'm here to tell you though, La Piola is MUCH better than that. The little garden out the back is lovely, the food is great along with the service, and it's eye wateringly good value. If you're thinking of going to Pizza Express anytime soon, seriously give yourself a slap and go here instead, it's ace.

Good local businesses need support, this one is no different. They also do breakfast which although I've never had I intend to, and for lunch one of their salads or starters would fill all but the greediest of buggers. For us, there's pizza or pasta.

Go to La Piola, you'll love it.

Wimbledon season recap 2021-22 part 2. The emergence of Jack Rudoni.

At the start of the season, all the AFC talk was about the new signings, I guess it always is with most clubs after the Summer. Luke McCormick came in and it was instantly obvious that he's a good player, ditto George Marsh. Henry Lawrence lit the place up for a month or two, Aaron Pressley showed fleeting glimpses of potential, while our own Ayoub Assal snarled his way to an England under 21 training session call up.

Back then, few would have noticed the awkward, leggy, flop haired teenager mooching around at left midfield. You'd certainly never have heard Jack Rudoni bellowing at his teammates, or rowing with the ref. He's always had that "such a nice lad" look about him, the kind of young bloke you'd be happy with if your daughter brought home from the school disco. Equally, he perenially has that not too sure about himself gait, like an apprentice who's been sent down the shop to get some stripey paint but kind of twigs it's a wind-up. 

As the season progressed though, young Jack grew both metaphorically and literally (if my eyes don't deceive me). He began to get more sure of himself as time went on, demanding the ball more. In his passing too he began to get more ambitious, he started to hold the ball a fraction of a second longer, to wait for the moment.

It was in his arrivals into the penalty area though that he really started to shine. The goals came at regular intervals, and equally encouragingly there were plenty of missed chances too. It showed Jack was learning, sussing out that moment to get there like a wardrobe falling down the stairs. Sure, inexperience led to snatched shots pulled wide or blazed over, but as the season progressed it was rare in a match for young Jack to not either have at least one chance to score or to set one up for someone else. And all the while the Duracell workrate continued, the tackling, along with the racking up of the stats.

Jack ended the season with 12 league goals, including no penalties or set pieces. He scores all types, shots off both sides, tap ins, arrivals. He's good in the air and scored a few in that way too. He finished up miles clear of all the under 21's in the league for goals scored, and not forgetting (though it pains me to say it) Wimbledon weren't the best team in the league. Five assists was right up there, along with seventy tackles won putting him third in the league. Paddy May at Fleetwood is a good player, but such was the rate Jack was improving at the end that his non inclusion in the League One young player of the year shortlist felt like a travesty of justice.

He'll will be off this Summer, he's not signing a new contract and it would be a crime for him to go down to league two. Whoever gets him is getting in my opinion by miles the best young first team player outside the Championship. He'll end up being a goal-scoring box to box central midfielder, all action, and he is already in my opinion AT LEAST good enough for the Championship.

Infact so much has he improved, even in the last three months, he could well play at the very top level before long. Buyers should form an orderly queue, for a player who won the Wimbledon young player of the year, the Wimbledon fans player of the year, and the Wimbledon player of the year.

Jack Rudoni, worth an absolute fortune before too long, and a small fortune now.

Wimbledon 2021/2022 season review, part 1.

The sun shone and the ground erupted, Dapo wheeled away as he completed a thrilling comeback against Bolton and all was good with the World. We'd already had a great awayday at Doncaster, and to now be involved in a ding-dong 3-3 with one of the big clubs of the league felt like our right of passage. In the immediate aftermath I stuck a few quid on a top six finish, and few who bounced up Gap Road after the match would have laughed at me either, despite what they say now.

So where did it all go wrong (George) from there? How on earth did we end up going 27 games without a win and being relegated with a bit to spare? How could we end up being quite such a disfunctional football team?

Well as you'd expect, with football being the most complicated of "simple" games there are many factors. Over the course of the blog, we'll try and touch on a few.

So firstly let's start with a positive. Every now and then a team, a coach or a player comes along and invents something completely new, a wholly alien concept to the game of association football. Klopp brought us "Gegenpressing", the Dutch brought us "total football", the Italians "Catanacio", while even the Wimbledon of old can claim to at the very least have had a hand in "route one" and "put it in the mixer".

Usually when teams are credited with a new invention, it's because it (whatever "it" is) brings success. I suppose though it fits in with the slightly contrary nature of AFC Wimbledon that we've managed to invent something which although so far has been completely devoid of any points whatsoever in it's favour, at least we can say without fear of equivocation that we were FIRST. We absolutely own this one. Indeed so "new" is it, so "out there" in it's conception, that there isn't even a name for it, in many parts of the football world they've never seen it before. I say "isn't" when really I should say "wasn't" because I've invented one now. So ladies and gentleman I give you, as our gift to the game of football, our invention this season. It is (drumroll please)....REVERSE time wasting.

Now time wasting is normally exceptionally annoying to the team that's behind. It's always been an accepted norm that if you're in front, you'll take ages over every throw in, corner, free kick and goal kick. Your players will go down injured, you'll happily keep pointless posession of the football in your own half, anything to drain the darned clock down, to keep the result exactly as it is.

Well this season, (with no lack of cunning in fairness), we've stood that whole concept completely on its head. How does that work? Well essentially once we get behind WE slow the game down, keep passing the ball around in our half without it having any discernable gain, Nik Tsanev takes ages over goal kicks (and in a recent development actually kicks them out for a throw in) etc. The game disappears like sand through a sieve, it's total genius. Our hapless opponents, expecting a late onslaught as we chase an equaliser/winner don't know what to do with themselves. They don't know whether to come into our half to try and get the ball off us, or just stand there and watch us pass it about pointlessly. 

It's a ploy which the term "lull them into a false sense of security" was absolutely made for. I'm making the assumption here that part two of the plan "then suddenly as they fall asleep watching us pass it around in our own half, we catch them unawares" is the part we haven't seen yet. We've perfected to a tee stage one now though, so watch this space.

Another completely new concept we've introduced this season (which I haven't got a name for yet) is the one where you get in a promising attacking position then reverse. This can be a throw in level with the opposition box, a good crossing opportunity, an attacking free kick even, but from there do we do the obvious? No siree, we don't (once again this is the clever bit). What we actually do is "precisely what the opposition is least expecting us to do" (Stephen Fry's General Melchitt would have a field day here). No we don't cross it, or shoot, or throw it into the box, we pass it backwards, then backwards again, then backwards again, then Nik Tsanev kicks it (usually out for a throw in). Teams usually get three points against us, but they rarely leave the pitch not scratching their heads, at least we can say that.

On the second "cunning plan", I hesitated to put it in as there is the danger I could be giving the game away. That said, the fella at Crewe obviously knew about it as he collected said back pass, went round Nik and sent us down, so the cat is probably out of the bag anyway.

It's been a funny old season though in a funny old game. Part two to follow at a later juncture.

Bowenball, what is it and can it lead us to safety?

So Mark Bowen has been in charge for three games now, what has changed? have we improved? and if so is it going to be enough to keep us up? The short answers are lots, yes definitely and maybe, but let's dig in a little deeper.

Firstly what has changed and what does football under this manager currently look like? Well fairly obviously one of the first changes we've made is that we've significantly simplified our methodology. It's obvious that we're far less concerned about posession of the football, happy to get it forward much quicker, to run the channels and generally try to play our football in the other teams half.

Defensively we sit in quite deep, no more pressing high unless there is a significant risk/reward chance in our favour. We're very compact, the distance between our lines really narrow. Against Milton Keynes at times our "two banks of" became "one mass of", but my hunch is that wasn't a result of coaching, it was just us dropping in too deep for a spell. Generally though we're prepared to concede posession and territory up to around 10 yards into our half (particularly of it's the opposition centre halves who have it).

As far as Nik Tsanev is concerned, we've given up asking him to get involved in the build up. These days Nick launches it nine times out of ten. Further, it looks to the naked eye that we spring back into shape much quicker, using the "do it early" maxim to regain our structure very effectively. George Marsh is of course built for this type of football, and his reinstallment to the team has been as effective as it has popular 

Unsurprisingly, the result of our more circumspect approach is that we look significantly more solid. We've conceded four goals in the three Mark Bowen games (all against good teams) but in truth we've conceded very few chances. In each case the goals we HAVE conceded were avoidable (they pretty much always are let's be honest) and were harsh punishments for momentary lapses. Also, to the naked eye it looks like weak pressing from the front players (most notably Ayoub Assal) has been addressed after costing us the first goal at Sheff Wed. This is overdue and young Ayoub has obviously worked on it.

Going forward, largely in my view because teams commit more men forward AGAINST us as they get frustrated, we've got a fair bit of cut to our attack on the break. Young Zak Robinson has literally been a revelation and a real find, while the exuberance and running power of Ayoub and Jack Rudoni is causing teams problems. Although it hasn't yet paid off in the form of a goal, we're keener it seems to get the big men up from every available set piece then dump it in the mixer, even from throws.

So have we improved? Well those who were campaigning for Robbo's removal ten games or more before he left have I'm afraid got one over on us "loyalists" here. There is absolutely no question whatsoever that we look like a better football team now than we did towards the end. The players look happier, more focused, less confused etc and as a result, LOOK like they care more (this is an optical illusion obviously, they ALWAYS cared). A possible contributor to this, although obviously I can't know for sure, is that the new Mark is 100% the manager on the touchline. I'm pretty sure when Robbo gets his next job that one of the changes he'll make is having his technical area significantly less populated, and therefore chaotic.

And have we improved enough to stay up? Well we've now in my opinion got a real chance. The point on Saturday was a bonus by my calculations, while Fleetwood getting beat at home by Accrington Stanley was massive. I fully expect us to end our non winning run on Friday by winning with a bit to spare at Crewe. We are a much better team than them, and a win by a couple of goal margin would help our relatively decent goal difference.

Wycombe at Home becomes a free hit, then we MUST win at Fleetwood. That's our cup final, if we do that, in my view a result against Accrington on the last day of the season and we stay up. Win and we might even do it with a couple of points to spare.

Get a ticket for Friday. After 24 winless games, we all deserve to be there when we finally break the voodoo or is it hoodoo? COYD.

My review- latitude Wimbledon.

A while ago I was out in Bristol, we went to a restaurant called Caper & Cure & I loved it. It was owned by two young fellas who were really putting their backs into making sure you had a great night out if you visited their establishment. No stone was left unturned in their desire to get it all right, and I remember saying at the time that Wimbledon needed a similar place.

Now I've been to Latitude before and it was excellent, I think I'd just forgotten how good it actually is. We went on a Thursday (Me, Sarah & our son Charlie), and there was not a single element of it which didn't hit the mark.

It's in a tiny little converted estate agents or something down towards South Wimbledon station, jammed in between some noodle gaffs and Ahmed's Indian. It doesn't look anything special from the outside (even the inside to be brutally truthful) but there's something about the honesty of the place, the earnest nature of the way they do stuff that I like.

On our visit, Rod (one of the co-owners) was doing the floor on his own. That includes drinks, cocktails, starters, mains and desserts. I reckon they had 25 covers and the fella never broke sweat, if he was a footballer he'd be Virgil Van Dyke. The other owner (I forget his name) was in the kitchen, on HIS own. He was doing starters, mains and washing up, and once again was all over it like a kid with a cup cake.

The food? There was six starters and they all looked good, so I ordered everything (our son eats like Shergar before he was kidnapped). They were demolished (prawns, calamari and some other stuff) in the blink of an eye, then I had a steak. That was superb, as was the calves liver and the belly pork (we're sharers in our family). We all had desserts (I had my familiar affogato Al whatsisface) and lots of beer/vino. The bill was £206 including service, it was absolutely superb.

Rod told me afterwards that although Friday was full, they still have two tables free for this Saturday night. How can that be? A superb little restaurant doing cracking food and they have space on a Saturday?

Give em a call, make their day. Wimbledon needs and deserves restaurants like Latitude, go.