What's the worst bit?

I don't know what was worse about the AFC Wimbledon v Barrow game yesterday. Was it that we continued to smash long diagonals in the direction of where Omar Bugiel normally stands, (he wasn't playing) or was it that we couldn't hold onto a two goal lead with three minutes of normal time left?

I suppose in terms of importance come the end of the season it'll be the latter. You really MUST hold onto two goal leads at home against teams in 18th place, but I must confess that I found the first half in particular yesterday so dull I was almost drifting off. The folks in my section of the West Stand took to pontificating about where one of the flats opposite had gotten their balcony hammock from. When that debate was settled, we amused ourselves watching the pigeons. Our feathered friends had quickly sussed out that they were far less likely to be in harms way if they say on the grass rather than flew around the pitch. They only had to dodge the ball on the odd occasion it bounced near them, trying to navigate crowded air space would have been something else entirely.

At half time I firmly felt we would still win it. We have far better players than Barrow for one thing, our method of "launch it into their final third as often as possible and hope something happens" while not being stimulating to watch was likely at some point to bare fruit. While I was convinced we would prevail, I'm going to hand on heart say here that I wasn't excited by it. Whatever happened to the JOY of football, the "three & you're in" mentality, the "next goal wins" happiness which caused us to watch and play the game in the first place? It feels like football by numbers to me, I cannot accept that given the talent of the squad this is the best we can serve up. I know it's professional football and not the Sunday League with your mates, but Sheesh.

Anyways after Barrow played through us and missed a sitter, eventually a long punt did pay off. Then, we showed what we can do when we got the ball down and scored a very good goal. It ought to have been done there, a classic "play poorly and win" performance that good teams have, but then we tossed it away.

Normally we are excellent at seeing games out so I don't see any point in waffling about a one off failure to do it. The football though lads. Johnnie said afterwards that we were excellent in the second half. I suppose compared to the first half we were, but not in my book by any other measure. We can play better than this, I am convinced of it.

We're going to need a bigger glass.

Anyone who's had the misfortune to read my drivel in the past will know that I'm not really a "glass half empty" kind of guy. As it is at the moment, I'm not even a "half glass full" guy either. No, the water is positively overflowing for me. In the words of Roy Schneider in Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger glass".

Now none of that is because we were absolutely scintillating at Carlisle (we weren't), but we WERE plenty good enough to get a win at what IS going to be "A tough place to come". That last quote has become the most "Johnnyistic" of sayings over the last three seasons, but I don't mind him saying it now we got the win. Carlisle were actually pretty good, it was a cracking win for us and I'll wager it'll be their last home defeat this season.

The most important aspect of the win was that it was SO vital, and yet Johnnie and the boys still got the job done, under pressure. That bodes well. I suppose we'll never know whether or not we'd have been quite so expansive at Carlisle if we'd beaten Cheltenham at home, but it matters not a jot. The fact that we were effectively forced into going all out for the win might just be one of those occasions in life where something good comes out of a volley in the gonads.

And from here the fact that we are now "down the stretch" and realistically have no option BUT to go all out to win from minute one, will surely only help us. There are nine games to go, we should go all out to win all of them. That's not a misprint. Try and win all nine (I mean REALLY try to win them) and we might win seven or eight. Eight would I think see us promoted as Champions.

See in conclusion although I agree when folks say it's a relatively weak league Two this year, I totally disagree when they say there are "no outstanding teams" in it. That is wrong, there is one outstanding team and it is US. We are the best team in the division and by quite a margin in my opinion.

I think it was Kennedy who said that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". He was spot on correct, that applies to us too. He was some orator was that lad. In fairness he also announced to a mass gathering of bemused Germans that "Ich bin ein Berliner" (a "Berliner" is a doughnut in Germany), but I suppose nobody gets it right every time.

So from here on in though we need boldness from the players and management. No "let's keep it tight for the first twenty minutes" (although obviously it's handy if we DO keep it tight, I'm just saying do other stuff as well), no more slow starts, no more too late substitutions. 

It's time to become legends. Time to prove what has been obvious for some time. We are the best team in League two, let's go all out and show it. If we do, we'll go up as Champions.

How to chase a lead.....

Being a football supporter can be a frustrating business sometimes. There's so much stuff to get frustrated ABOUT, let's face it. Every time a pass is misplaced or a shot screwed wide there are howls from the stands. It's not obviously that the punters think they could have done better themselves, it's more of a disbelief that players as good as ours ever get it so badly wrong.

I think probably THE most frustrating things for me though are not individual errors. Sheesh I've played football enough times and made a mess of things enough times to know that it ain't as easy as these lads make it look. No, THE most frustrating thing for me to watch is when collectively we make the same errors time and time again, as a team.

I'm talking of course about how we approach it late on in games when we're behind. Collectively our approach is absolutely miles off, it almost looks as if we haven't actually got a plan at all. Our record at pulling games and points out of the fire is terrible, watching us it's easy to see why. I'd go as far as saying that if you were to make a video of how NOT to chase the game, we'd be a decent case study. For a team which is so excellent at protecting a lead (we are brilliant at it) to be quite so bad at chasing one is baffling to me, but it is what it is.

So where do we (in my opinion) go wrong? What is it that frustrates me so?

Firstly, when you are behind in a football match & you're inside the last fifteen minutes, your objective has to be to build pressure. In this and in every other aspect, the team trying to to defend the lead is seeking the direct opposite.

The best way of building pressure is to keep the ball in play, active, for as long and for as much of the time as is humanly possible. It obviously follows that the team defending the lead wants the game to be broken up, plenty of stoppages, delays etc. So (and sorry to continually bang on about this), YOU MUST NOT GIVE AWAY CHEAP FOULS. Yesterday once we'd gone behind young Josh Kelly left his foot in as the keeper cleared it, a pointless foul which cost us both momentum and 80 seconds. The goalkeeper cleared it into touch, it would have been OUR ball. Then Marcus Browne got away with one, only to immediately foul somebody else instead. As I've said lots of times, if it means you DON'T challenge where normally you would, so be it. Not giving away free kicks is almost more important than winning the ball back.

Similarly, you must do everything in your power to keep the ball on the pitch. If that means risking heading it back infield rather than out for a throw in as you normally would, once again so be it. Each time you concede a throw in, it's the best part of 60 seconds gone.

And then when you HAVE the ball, mix it up. Move it, probe, pull them around, look for the pass. If it doesn't come off, DON'T FOUL. Stay on your feet, pressure the ball, get it back, go again.

Honestly, if we get better at THAT part of the game, allied to how good we are at defending a lead, we'll smash past twenty points in our last ten games.

What now for AFC Wimbledon?

If we were on a flight, six games ago the tannoy would have instructed us to return to our seats and fasten our seatbelts. Fortunately such is the technology on aeroplanes, they can see the turbulence well in advance. Though there'll be plenty of our fans who claim to have seen the impending nosedive in our form long before it happened, they didn't exactly shout about it to me. 

Whether we saw it coming or not though, that we are in the middle of a bit of a slump is beyond dispute. In those last six league matches we've won once, drawn twice and lost three times. We have failed to score in half of those games and despite none of the games being against teams in the top three, have amassed  the grand total of five points. It's barely better than relegation form, and even over the noise of the superb PSV fans who visited Plough Lane last night, you could hear the rumblings of discontent from the natives.

The good news is that although we are in a nosedive, it isn't yet a tailspin. We don't have to yank the joystick back in order to miss a mountain by a whisker, we just need to get things back under control and all will be good. There's plenty of time. Ten games isn't even inside the last couple of furlongs never mind approaching the last fence. Our destiny is firmly in our own hands and there is absolutely no need, yet, to panic.

In those last ten games, my estimate is that in order to go up automatically we are going to need AT LEAST 20 points. That is totally achievable in this league with this squad, we've just got to get back in the groove and sharpish. We really ought to be opening up with going absolutely ALL OUT for a win at Carlisle on Saturday. We have some tricky games mixed in with these last ten fixtures, we don't have any easier games than this one. It is a DEFINITELY DO NOT LOSE and probably close to a must win now.

Anything else? Well given the results in the last six games (five points remember) there is nobody outside of the goalkeeper and defenders who could have any complaints at all if they are dropped. That applies to the two midfielders, the 10 and the two strikers. NONE of them IMHO are doing enough to make them indespensible, and if I was Johnnie I'd change it up. Callum Maycock ought to play for sure if available, Sam Hutchinson could cover for either of the two central midfielders. Neither of the strikers are currently doing enough to be untouchable, we should look to change there too.

And for Johnnie the time for substitutions in the 82nd minute, when we've just gone behind, has gone. Now is HIS time, it's HIS time to show that he really has grown as a manager. It's HIS time to become the 12th man, to make the difference, to win the tactical battle, to give the team the extra 10%. It's time for boldness, not for pointing out how away grounds are a "difficult place to come". It's not time for any more "good point on the road" interviews, it's time to go in for the kill.

These next few weeks will distill into a bite sized chunk how his three seasons at AFC Wimbledon are judged. He'll either be a hero for taking us up, or a nearly man for not managing it when he had a golden opportunity. I'm backing him to do the business. He HAS the tools, we HAVE the squad depth and the league isn't the strongest. Not only that, but he is an improving young manager.

There is still plenty of time for him and us to come good. Cometh the hour, cometh Johnnie Jackson hopefully.

Back on track!

Not for the first time this season, at the end of the game on Saturday we were left with a "What was all the fuss about?" feeling about a well beaten opponent. Like the all conquering Bradford and Doncaster before them, Notts County were comfortably dispatched by what is palpably a better team than any of them can claim to be.

Sitting where I do down the far end of the West Stand I get to see the subs warming up. Not the first time as I watched young Foyo going through his paces, Sasu blistering up the touchline like a racehorse on the first light gallops, I was left thinking that our opponents would love our "options". Foyo looks like an unbelievably powerful lad for his young age, while it will surprise nobody that I think Aaron Sasu would start for Notts County alongside Jatta (What a front two that would be). Callum Maycock is an excellent player who on Saturdays evidence would walk into their team, while Riley Harbottle would no doubt start for his home town club too. 

We oughtn't therefore be overly surprised that we have the capability to beat these teams with plenty in hand. Bradford and Doncaster may have "only" been 1-0 wins, but they were as comfortable as you'll ever see at that score. The Notts County fans took to singing the ironic "We've had a shot!" on Saturday (past the hour mark for the first time) and I remain convinced that based on squad strength, we really ought to have ambitions of winning the league.

The fact that we probably don't anymore isn't because we've been beaten by good teams, it's because our record against really poor teams on the road is way below what it should be. To go to the Franchise, Accrington, Fleetwood and Morecambe and pick up three points out of twelve is bang average at best given how good a team we are. To not score a goal in any of them, in six hours of football is what will ultimately cost us a shot at the title.

The good news is, if we go up second or third (indeed if we go up at all), nobody will give a shite. When people regale me with stories of our last promotion, nobody says it would have been better if we'd finished sixth in the league rather than seventh. Nobody cares. We went up, that's all that matters and that'll be the case this time too.

Obviously our best chance of achieving our goal is if we go up automatically. That way we avoid a freak bad game putting us out, a mental refereeing display. The playoffs are a lottery, I'd prefer a premium bond to a Euromillions ticket any day.

And Saturday was the blueprint for how we get there. From minute one we were bristling with attacking intent. Ali Smith really ought to have scored from Sam Hutchinson's cross after three minutes, every time we got the ball we streamed forward, flooded the area and looked threatening. I've stopped worrying about the defence. With big Joe Lewis (the best centre half in L2 by a distance) back there, we ain't gonna concede many.

And football is a simpler game than we all make out. If you make lots of chances then concede hardly any, all things being equal you'll win lots of matches. That's what we have to from here on in, and I've a notion that as a team, as a management group we need to trust the lads at the back a bit more. Big Joe, Isaac, Hutch, Johno and our two excellent fullbacks ain't gonna concede many chances. OG is having a fine season too as he showed with his amazing save on Saturday, let's trust them more.

So Johnny please no more "hard place to come" interviews, no more "it's a great point on the road" comments after 0-0's, believe in yourself and the brilliant team you've built and go smash somebody up. Get off the bus, kick the front door in, take the points, punch the carpark attendant on the nose on the way out & fuck off back home. Defend higher, commit men forwards, make the subs five minutes earlier, speed the game up. 

There isn't a team in this division that can live with us when we're right. We are too big, too strong, too powerful. When our first choicers are knackered we can replace them with young lads who are bristling with intent, even quicker across the grass. 

We have the tools, we have the weapons, it's time for a bit of blitzcreig football. Smash this lot tomorrow then get up to Carlisle and give them a good hiding. That's NOT a hard place to come, not when you've got a team which has a player who is better than theirs in every single position on the pitch.

Go there and WIN, then WIN again. It's time to believe, let's not die wondering.