Josh Davison-Time for a reset?

If you keep the Volvo locked in the garage unused for a couple of months, don't be surprised if she doesn't kick into action the first time you turn the key. Equally, don't be alarmed by a couple of cobwebs under the bonnet or previously unheard squeeks, they'll happen. And if the annoying bloke next door, the one with the two seater, beats you to the punch when the lights change, it doesn't mean you've got a bad car neither. 

And so it was with Josh, dusted off and trundled down the driveway for the first time in ages on Saturday. Gawd only knows what was in his head as he lined up less than twelve hours after his girlfriend had given birth, but there he was, ponytail billowing in the wind.

And was he any good? I'd say he was pretty much as you'd expect to be honest. Did he look a bit rusty? Yes. Did he look a bit like he was off the pace, needing minutes and perhaps not as one million per cent focused as he normally is? Yes again but all understandable. Totally as you'd expect infact from a young man who was no doubt a whirl of emotion, a fella who has been starved of opportunities.

The fan reaction though on the internet and podcasts is less than forgiving. Some say he's no more than a non league striker, that he'll never be good enough. I obviously can't agree with that, he's not an Alex Pierce or a Chris Gunther in the twilight of his career and on the way down. Josh is a young player, one who will undoubtedly improve from where he is. He was plenty good enough last season, he will be this one too.

So what to do? There is obviously a reasonable chance that in a couple of months Josh will once again be our main striker. The most common criticism I hear is that "he's no Ali is he?". And of course he isn't. That's why Ali is worth significantly in excess of a million quid, that's why he is in my opinion the most valuable striker in League Two by a fair margin. But to burden Josh with that expectation is akin to scrapping the Volvo because it can't beat a two seater Merc from a standing start, it's nuts. So what DO we do?

First and foremost I think it's about time we accepted that despite our "XG" stats, we aren't actually a highly productive attacking unit. That is to say, we don't create a ton of chances. We do create chaos from which chances arise, but we don't as a rule carve teams open. Unless Tilly or Ali score, we generally aren't productive, and in both cases their goals have often been as a result of individuality rather than an intricate team pattern. That's not a criticism by the way, it's merely an observation. Aside from Tranmere at home and to an extent Colchester away, we have grinded it out.

Now Josh isn't the type to do an Ali. Outpacing defenders was never going to be his thing, particularly not when (it looks to me anyway) he has muscled up a bit and put a pound or two on. He isn't slow, but he doesn't have Ali's afterburner change of gear. Equally, he doesn't hold it up with the same upper body strength as our star man, in short Josh is a totally different kind of striker. So given that, and given that when our Iraqi goes we are going to need goals from somewhere, I wonder if a systemic rethink might be in order. 

Joe Lewis, Ryan Johnson and Alex Bass provide a perfect tripod in my view from which to consider a 4-3-3 when Ali doesn't play. Our two full backs have plenty enough energy to bomb up and down, and our two midfielders plus Jimmy Ball would provide a robust barrier to any counters. Up top, then I'd play Omar as the central pivot but ask Josh to play INSIDE RIGHT. Younger readers might want to Google that position, it does exist and is kind of an in between the half space slot (think Mo Salah). Inside left I'd play Aaron Sasu, that'd give us the pace, thrust and fluidity we'd need.

I'd tell Josh to run around LESS (I think he uses workrate as a comfort blanket sometimes) but to work in the half spaces, he and Sasu being that annoying itch that the centre halves can't scratch.

I think going forward (post Ali Im talking here) this might be the best way for us to play. Whatever though, Josh is a good player just like he was last season. Like the Volvo, locking him in the garage doesn't mean he becomes bad overnight. And like the mythical Volvo, he'll go best when polished, cherished, loved, not asked to perform tasks for which he's not suitable. The Volvo might not be able to beat the two seater, but try getting your dog and the kids in the back of the softtop.

Get behind our man, soon we'll NEED him to produce his best form of last season.

The DTB, the PLC & reading the room.

Anybody who subjects themselves to any of my waffle will know that by and large I stay out of club politics. It's partly because I don't feel as though my bandwagon jumper status entitles me to comment, and partly because to be honest with you I aren't that interested. You could also add in the facts that not only do I have next to no knowledge of the people involved, but I have absolutely zero knowledge of Flexi loan "take away the number you first thought of" bond restructuring (or whatever it's called). The couple of people I know who ARE involved in such things for the club are fortunately extremely clued up, so I'm more than happy to keep schtum about all things in that department and let them get on with it.

I also must confess that I have no idea what the two boards actually do (I'm not saying that they don't do anything, just that I have no idea about it). I don't know why we have two boards, I don't know which one gets the overriding final say, I don't know if any of them get paid for doing whatever it is that they do, but I know that loads of folks give up their time for free. The one thing I DO know about the whole thing is that quite a large portion of the fanbase are completely disillusioned with the whole structure. Whether that's because like me they just don't understand it (except they actually DO care), or whether it is infact rotten to the core as they say, I have no idea. That lots of folks aren't happy though is surely not a controversial opinion.

Under those circumstances, it's probably a good idea when making the fairly major appointments which have been made recently, to "read the room" (to quote my daughter). In the last couple of weeks we've appointed to the roles of Managing Director and Chairman. The way that both appointments have been made, and the people chosen for the roles, could scarcely it seems to me have been a redder rag to the bull of discontent. I wonder, did it have to be that way?

Let's start with the chairman. Here, I may as well declare an interest. I didn't know Mick Buckley until the fans forum last year, and I think he himself would probably accept that there he didn't have his absolute best night. His dog stories, his "changing the manager at this stage never works" and his "injury index" things were bonkers and nuts in equal measure. That said, his and the boards somewhat risky decision to stick with Johnnie Jackson has been a resounding success. It might have looked like a gamble at the time (because it was) but it worked. Mick and the rest of them deserve huge credit. I would personally have kept Mick on as chairman, I think he's a good bloke. I'm also sure that he has the best interests of the club at heart. I know not everyone agrees, but write your own blog if you feel that strongly about it.

Then Kris Stewart as managing director. I have absolutely zero knowledge of Kris, I don't even know what he looks like. I have no idea whether or not he is suitable for the role, but it's probably fair to say that some people have their doubts. That doesn't mean that he is a disastrous pick obviously, I'm just setting the tone as I see it here.

So what is the problem? Well, detractors would say it all looks a bit cozy. They'd say that the PLC board (led by Mick) appointed Kris, whereas the DTB & MD (Kris) appointed Mick. Whether or not that IS how it all panned out I have no idea, but that's how they'll see it. Unfortunately there has been nothing in the communication (nothing that I understand anyway) to disprove this theory. 

Equally, at the aforementioned fans forum, as Mick talked about his dog and gazed whistfully into the distance, he said he was standing down in a few months (around about now in fact). There was no mention of him staying on there, and here there doesn't seem to be any mention of him standing down anytime soon. Kris as I understand it is in place until we find a new managing director, but once again there is no mention of how long that might take.

And all the while the club is plastered over the front pages of newspapers through a scandal of our own making. Someone appointed Danny into the MD's job, someone appointed the other members of staff involved too. Culturally it looks like we didn't quite get it right (it IS National understatement day isn't it?) and there is much to be done both there and in recruitment.

Detractors would talk about accountability, they'd ask who is responsible for that cultural misfire? They'd ask who pays for the recruitment which didn't work out? They'd ask if it was appropriate under the circumstances to make the appointments which we have made, to have kept the status quo. I'm not saying that I agree with any of that, I'm just repeating the stuff that people say in the Alex.

My take for what it's worth, is that we are in extraordinary circumstances and we HAD to do something. For Mick to step down now, while we have no MD (or DM in this case funnily enough), would have been reckless. I'm glad he stayed on. Equally, whether or not he's Simon Jordan, Kris stepping up so we have SOMEONE in there makes sense. BUT, there ought to be some open communication with the fans about how long these people are going to be in place, what our plans are going forward. There ought to be an internal and honest investigation (not led by those involved) to find out quite where we got it wrong both culturally and in our appointment processes.

And finally, most importantly, those who DO run the club have surely got to get MUCH better at bringing the club back to the fans. The communication has to be better, crucially not just in what they put out but also in that they have to listen MUCH better. It's no good writing people off as nutters just because we don't agree with them, it's no good clinging onto power like we're scared to let someone else have a say.

It's probably if we're honest, time to look at the DTB constitution. Someone said rule 62 or something had been broken last week, anything with 62 rules is too complicated. I'm 100% a "keep it fan owned" follower, and I accept that as a bandwagon jumping glory hunter I have less of a right to an opinion than most. I do though have a season ticket, a debenture and a bit of a clue about people. We can't keep bashing our heads together all the time, it's time to do stuff better.

My Match Report: AFC Wimbledon v Tranmere Rovers.

If Carlsberg did 57th birthdays, they'd give you a bacon sarnie for breakfast, some checked shirts as prezzies, a MyPie before the football and your team smashing the opposition 4-1. They might even chuck in you being wished happy birthday on the tannoy a couple of times, the kids coming back for the game from uni, and you winning a nice few quid backing the Ali Al-Hamidi hat trick. So it was on a beautifully Autumnal afternoon in Plough Lane, it quite simply couldn't have gone better.

And yet, how different did it look at quarter past three. I'm not gonna lie (as the kids say), we were absolutely rubbish. Perhaps Tranmere's kit had us and them thinking they were Real Madrid, they certainly resembled galacticos as they ran rings around us. I say ran, it was more strolled really. We rubbed our eyes and bumbed into each other like fresh out of bed students, trying to get to Macdonalds in time to get a breakfast bap before the midday switchover.

They led 1-0 and in truth it could've been more. It kind of summed us up that when Aaron Sasu put it on a plate for Armani Little to have a crack, he decided instead to do something else (I'm not that sure what "it" was in truth, even after watching it back). That though looking back was the turning point of the game. The groans of the fans had barely died down before the fella with the "Living with the Fury's" first name got another chance. No doubt taking the view that it could hardly end worse than what he did last time, he smashed it. After ricochet it flew past the bemused and confused Scouse stopper. The crowd went wild (well woke up anyway) and we were off.

From there, we put in the best performance I've seen from a Wimbledon team since we beat Oxford 3-1 under Robbo. We were magnificent, strong, quick, dangerous and committed in equal measure. It would have taken a team (with the greatest respect to them) significantly better than Tranmere to live with us. In truth it could have been a lot more than  the eventual 4-1, they were happy to hear the final whistle.

Ali got a hat trick (course he did), Aaron Sasu lit the game up on his debut, Omar Bugiel was excellent and in fairness so was everyone. My best player on the day though was Armani Little, he's never played better for us than this, he was superb.

It's felt like we are about to see a break out performance for a couple of weeks now, here we had it. The simple truth is that if we play like this, there are only a handful of League Two teams that can live with us. Stop whispering, shout it from the rooftops, we are a very good team.

Time to start REALLY believing....

First off, if you're expecting posts about tapes self destructing in ten seconds, gagging orders or the club being on the front page of the papers, look elsewhere. I can't be bothered with any of that stuff, I don't do politics (aside from saying that we should reconsider on Ivor not presenting the Man of the Match award. That was a dog's arse of a decision in my opinion). Sorry but I don't know the full facts so I don't really have anything to add to all the stuff on social media.

Anyway, the football (we do play football you know).

We're around 20% of the way through the season now, things are starting to sort themselves out. A few things are fairly clear, Notts County, Stockport, Mansfield and Wrexham look like the top four. Louis Barry (Stockport) & Davis Keilor-Dunne (Mansfield) look early candidates to be the league's best player, Salford are rubbish so far and the league is uber competitive.

And what of us? Well we are obviously a good team and on our day can be a match for anyone in the league. I don't think that our squad is quite so strong as the top four, but we shouldn't have any worries about anyone else. Further, and here's the thing, we are a better team than the vast majority of other clubs in the league. So what? I hear you ask. Well my point is, we should start acting like it, start believing it, because it's 100% true.

See for me it's an attitude thing. Tranmere won last week and have a new manager (their first win in eight). We play them on Saturday and we are comfortably a better team than them. If we draw 0-0, it's not a "good point", it's not a "good clean sheet" and it isn't "nice to keep our run going". If we don't win, it is an AWFUL result, simply because we are MILES better than them. We should strut onto the pitch like we know it (because we do, they know it too). We should look to boss the game from minute one, get on the front foot and get that front foot on the throat. If it's 0-0 after ten minutes, we want them looking at each other going "Sheesh we'll never be able to hold out here". It's an attitude thing.

Same at Harrogate Tuesday. We go, we get off the bus, we kick their arse, take the points, we come home. None of this "tricky place to go" stuff, we're an extremely tricky team to host. Again, if our attitude is right the draw doesn't even come into the equation. We ought to win with plenty to spare.

And the players. Joe Lewis & Ryan Johnson must be among the best centre half pairings in the league, I man love both of em. But one goal from a set piece between em? Not good enough lads, come on let's double that tally either on Saturday or Tuesday. Armani & Jake, a brilliant centre mid pairing and we are lucky to have em. But we need a goal lads, top teams (of which we are one) have central midfielders who score, it's about time our engine room chopped in. And Ali? We waited for the best striker in the league to come good, and now it's happened. He's got one as of today, by NEXT Wednesday morning I went and expect him to have scored AT LEAST three goals.

See that's how good we are. If we keep working, we can stay humble but get nicely arrogant, that's what good teams are. If they concede first they don't panic, they KNOW they are the better team and they know that they'll have chances to win in the end. If it's 1-1 with ten minutes left, they go for it. Top teams hate to draw against lesser teams.

Nice arrogance. It's time for us to realise that we are a good team and to show it by winning every week. Less of this "Let's see where it takes us" stuff, good teams (of which we are one) control their OWN destiny.

Why can't we hold a lead?

Stockport at home, January 28th, 2023. I think that was the last time we held onto a lead. Now before you shout "Ah eff off dickhead!" at your phone (don't do it, particularly on the tube, people will think you're mental) let me explain. I KNOW we've won games since then, but that was the last time we "held on".

In the other games we've won, we haven't really held on. We've been at least two goals to the good. More importantly, (because as we know, being two goals up is no guarantee of success) in all of the league games we've won since Stockport on January 28th, we've scored a goal to kill the game. To save you checking, we've won three league games since January 28th, they are as follows.

Walsall (H) 2-0 March 28th. We dominated this game. We scored two second half goals, the second of which on 75 minutes (Ali) killed the game, we cruised home.

Colchester (A) 2-0 15th August. Once again we were utterly dominant, Tills got the first on 54 minutes, then killed the game stone dead with the second on 84.

Sutton (A) 3-0 August 19th. In a tight match, Ryan Johnson put us in front of 64 minutes. Crucially Harry Pell got the second on 80, while Tills killed it completely on 86.

Aside from those games, we've drawn when we've been ahead by one, drawn when we've been ahead by two, and lost games when it looked impossible. As much as I can gather though, these are the only three games since Stockport where we have got the "goodnight" goal, the "that one puts it to bed" strike, the "thanks for coming and don't let the door hit you up the arse on the way out" score.

Now it's easy, as we all do, to blame the defence, the goalkeeper (as I somewhat controversially did after Saturday), the "mentality", the manager, the referee or whatever. I wonder sometimes though if we are barking up the wrong tree. I'm not saying we should "blame" the attack, but perhaps a slight shift on our focus as a team might be in order.

When you get in front, the opposition is going to try and get back into it. They'll change systems, make some subs, but crucially at some point they will chuck men forward. Crewe had everyone bar the goalie trying to score on Saturday, what choice did they have?

For our part, I'd just like to see us focus not totally on the desperation of not conceding, I'd like to see us be cold and calculating enough to ping them on the counter, put the game to bed more often. It helps if you have players with pace (we do) but you also need to be brave enough. Brave enough to bring those players on, brave enough to leave players up when defending a corner, brave enough to encourage others to get up and support.

I've a hunch that if we can DO that, we'll win lots more football matches. 

AFC Wimbledon. We do play football as well you know.

It's not often in my life that I've had the opportunity to use the word tumultuous. That's not a complaint by the way. To be honest I'm a bit of a fan of everyone kind of getting along with each other, stuff being fairly boring. I'm not one for walking around punching walls or slamming doors, it's just not really me. This week at AFC Wimbledon though has been tumultuous by any definition, door slamming is just the start of it.

It started with the immediate and sudden departure of Danny Macklin. The club sent out a statement which was slightly longer than "he's gone" but not by much. Danny (bless him) sent out a statement saying he wanted more time to play with his train set or something, but it was obviously bollocks and everyone knew it (he probably hasn't even got a train set). The rumour mill ground into action and by now Danny has allegedly taken pictures of his arse on the office photocopier before sending them to one of the barstaff, been a Russian spy all along, had undeclared shares in a bottle top company, had his office bugged and God knows what else. Everyone has heard the rumours, some people have started them, most are obviously nonsense but probably one or two of the five hundred that are out there have a grain of truth in them.

I was surprised by Danny's departure I must admit. What shocked me more though if I'm honest was how obsessed people were with finding out all the gory details. I personally aren't really interested, but I'm firmly in the minority on this one. Apparently the club should have released a statement spelling out the rationale (in clear contravention of employment law by the way) as well as setting out who was going to replace him, straight away, and when it was going to happen. Social media went into meltdown over the lack of information that by all accounts we are all entitled to, as owners.

Then when a statement about what was happening in the short term DID come out, IT was horrific too. I'm pretty sure I've never met this Kris Stewart bloke. I have no opinion on him other than a dislike for the way his name is spelt (it's a bit Northern town "Nite Club" for my taste), but I've no doubt he is a nice enough fella. Don't hate me for saying that, I truly believe pretty much everyone is quite nice given the chance. Whether or not he is the best person to be temporary CEO I have absolutely no idea. Equally, whether or not it's the right thing for him to step down from the DTB and leave Michelle in charge (never met her) and bring in this other bloke as a floating/just for a bit board member (never met him) I have no opinion on either. Whatever though, I'm pretty sure they've done it because they think it's the right thing to do, You can't go too far wrong in life when you do things that way.

Anyways by all accounts along with a couple of other people Kris was involved in setting the club up. Despite that he is properly disliked by some very vocal people for a reason of which I am not aware. Talking of founding fathers incidentally, so is Jonesy (really good lad who I do know. He designs the shirts and is bloody good at it too). He apparently said that even if we lose we can still have a beer in our new ground. This was an incredible statement as it turns out, blasphemous. As we speak, I think they are making a Worzel Gummidge type dummy of Jonesy so we can all stab it with plastic forks from MyPie before setting it on fire. I'm not sure WHY his statement was quite so controversial, I'm just going with the crowd here.

"The Comms are tragic" they screamed. The Dons Trust need to appoint a "Comms expert!". They must have listened as they advertised for one, but this was ridiculous too. Apparently, "you couldn't make it up" and everything has gone to pot.

All the while a bloke calling himself "Trigger finger" or something is saying everyone is a c***. I'm not going to argue with him (I've no idea who he is in any case), in my experience everyone has the capability to be a c*** within their character. Even the best of us lapse sometimes, and this by all accounts has been one of those weeks. Fair play to old Triggs for pointing it out.

For my part, I'm well aware that all of this angst and arguing is no doubt fuelled by long felt mistrust, soundtracked by the stomach churning crunch of noses being put out of joint. There'll be those who think THEY should be on the board but aren't, those who think there shouldn't be a board at all. Some who think we should sell out to a rich Russian or a petroleum fuelled Arab, others that we should bin off the volunteers and get "the Professionals" in. Not Bodie & Doyle, the actual folks who do this kind of thing for a living (although there maybe someone somewhere who yearns for the calming hand of George Cowley on the tiller, gawd knows).

My opinion for what it's worth (and I know it's not much) is that the people in charge DO do this kind of thing for a living, except they normally charge hefty fees for their time. I'm not really into selling out to anyone, I quite like stuff the way it is. I don't agree with everything, nowhere near it, but broadly speaking stuff could be a lot worse.

My hopes, perhaps we should go there? Well, I wish people online were a bit nicer to each other, a bit more respectful. I wish they could accept that not everyone agrees with their point of view all of the time. It's OK. Try and remember we're supposed to be on the same side, there would a thing.

Lastly I hope people remember that it's actually the football that we're here for. We're playing Crewe on Saturday and it really would be quite handy if we got the win. I'm personally more interested in THAT than the other stuff.

Is it starting to look "A bit like last year"?

I'm lucky enough to talk to lots of Dons fans who come in the Alex. For that reason I guess I've generally got a fair sense of what the prevailing mood is, in a kind of "Ask a black cab driver whether the government is any good" kind of way. After the defeat on Saturday (our first of the season in fairness) I detected a worry developing amongst some punters that they were getting that "I think I've seen this film before" feeling.

They weren't concerned I should say about how good the squad is. EVERYONE can see that it is much stronger this season than last. Nor are they bothered about individual players, it is as obvious as the hooter on my face that we have better ones than last season. They're not agity about the manager either, he has solid support right now. No, it's the tendancy to give leads up which is making some uneasy. I think we set a record for the most points given up when in front over the last couple of seasons, and obviously it'd be quite nice for everyone if we had a bit of an "off year" in that regard this time.

So is it looking like the same?

Well in my eyes I am firmly of the belief that we are NOT the same, not even similar. We have recruited brilliantly in the Summer, Craig Cope deserves huge credit for that, and the whole squad has an energy about it which is completely different to last season.

If you'll remember in the Summer before last we recruited the likes of Chris Gunther, Alex Pearce, Harry Pell and the like. Johnnie felt the team was lacking in experience (it was) and brought in some much older heads to balance things up. Those three played practically all of the time, and along with the likes of Woody meant that come the last twenty minutes of matches, we were running on the fumes from a rag which cleans the pumps. Not only that, our goalkeeper was less reliable than the one we have now, and the group of players (which weren't anywhere near so good as this group) were devoid of confidence. Are we similar to that? Definitely not in my eyes, no.

And are they right to be worried? 

Again, from me it's a no. Although I DO understand the concerns, I DO get it when people say "hang on here, we haven't beaten anyone any good/we've only won two matches/we haven't won at home in our three games" etc. I get that, simply because it's partly true (Colchester are far better than where they are in the league right now). I hear those points, but it still feels mightily different to me than last season. We've picked up points in games we surely would have got beat in last season, not got bullied in situations we would have crumpled in, it IS different.

So is it all rosy and happy clappy then? No, not really no. For my part, I'm obsessed about WINNING football matches. It concerns me that sometimes we are overly concerned with not getting beat. At 1-1 with 15 minutes to go, we should in my opinion be bringing the cavalry on, sticking an extra man up top, going all out for the win. Win one lose one is better than draw two and remain unbeaten. The teams which outperform their potential in League two WIN more matches than it would be realistic to expect of them. We ought to be less fearful of losing in my view, more gung ho in seeking out the three points.

Other slight concerns? Well Josh's goal in Saturday was our first by a striker this season. We don't create huge amounts of chances, and unfortunately for us and him, so far those that we HAVE created Ali has missed. That obviously won't continue as Ali is a brilliant player, but it'd be quite handy if he burst the seal soon. In many ways it's been a saving grace that James Tilley has been so amazing, but it would be unrealistic to expect him to carry on in his current "goal a game" form. We are obviously going to need goals from elsewhere pretty soon.

And my final "Do this and we'll all feel better" request is that we DO hang onto a lead. I'm not counting the two league games in which we've won, simply because when you are two nil up or three nil up you ain't hanging on. Stockport closed out the last half hour on Saturday while 2-1 up. Although we had a right good go, I think Tilleys one in the dying seconds was our only real chance. THAT'S hanging on, if we can do that, get the job done a couple of times, it'll calm everyone down.

Same as last season though? Nah not for me. MY biggest worry is that if we don't WIN against Crewe on Saturday, we'll be on either ten or eleven points after eight games. Both of those totals are a travesty up against how well we've played. We've been FAR better than that, even if we win and have thirteen points even that is barely what we deserve in my eyes.

No, its NOT the same as least season. We are a good team, and really ought to be aiming for top ten. I think we'll get there with a little bit in hand.

COYD