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

They should pay me not to come....

For the second time this season I missed a home game & in my absence the team put in a scintillating display. After missing out on the comeback of comebacks against Colchester, a wedding in Scotland meant that it was my son sitting in my West Stand seat who got to see us smash MK three zip. I've only seen the goals, but everyone I know who went said we were brilliant. So some thoughts in the aftermath.

1. I was totally WRONG in wondering if us having a week off while MK were winning 1-0 at home would end up being a bad idea. I still think there shouldn't be International breaks in League Two, but having one obviously didn't do us any harm. Note to self, stop talking bollocks.

2. This win is VERY significant and not just because it's "them". Leaving emotion out of it, they have an excellent squad for the level and to smash them so convincingly really says something about our team. I think it is now official, we are a very good league two outfit. Aside from one dodgy performance at Bromley, we have been good in every game we've played. From here we really ought to be thinking about a potential automatic promotion slot. I'm not by any means saying we are certainties, but we have a proper chance of getting there. We really ought to be certs for the playoffs.

3. I had a bit of a pop a few weeks back about us not being an easy watch. We were a very good watch against Fleetwood, I thought that was a cracking game of football, and everyone says we were brilliant yesterday. Note to self, REALLY stop talking bollocks.

4. The final part of becoming a really good team is to actually realise then properly believe that you are one. That comes from the management team and the way we approach games. We are a good enough outfit now to go to any ground in League two and properly try and win. Sure games like Bradford away on Saturday aren't easy, obviously a point there wouldn't be the worst result in the world, neither should we scoff at a clean sheet, but we are plenty good enough to go there and win. That should be our primary objective from the moment we start working towards the game this week.

5. Johnny Jackson. It hasn't been a road without bumps, but here we are three seasons in and there appears little doubt that this is the best squad he has had at his disposal. So far he's doing a bloody good job of getting the best out of them, and he deserves lots of credit. Yes I'd like to get a few more academy grads into the squad, yes I'd like us to go through the thirds a bit more, but it's a results business at the end of the day. He's getting results, well done to him & Skivvers, long may it continue. COYD

International breaks, MOM awards, DTB stuff & some football thoughts...

First things first, we shouldn't be on an International break. We shouldn't even have the OPTION of being on a break, but even though we do have it we ought to have passed it up in my opinion. As an opener, to see League Two games postponed & giving up the opportunity of gaining new fans during international breaks makes me need a lie down. In cities like London where literally thousands of fans of "big" clubs might be encouraged to bring their kids to see REAL football, it is utterly nuts to call games off. Not only that, but while MK were getting their faltering season up and running yesterday, we were playing head tennis & having the afternoon off. Who got the best end of that deal? You decide.

The MOM awards. I've long held the view that a certain Ivor Hellor should never have been taken off the job in the first place. I was told a while back by a certain high up person at the club that they had sympathy for my view and to "Watch this space". Well I've watched the space for over a year now & bugger all has happened. Either they were lying to me back then or they've changed their minds. Whichever is the case isn't massively important, but I STILL think Ivor should be doing it. If the club ever gets someone else who is better at it I'll be the first to change their minds. I'm less inclined so to do though when the stand-ins aren't even half as good. Please get Ivor back, it was part of the matchday experience. I once took my kids to Kingsmeadow along with a bunch of their pals, Ivors MOM presentation performance made almost as much of an impact on them as the football did. Bring him back.

The DTB? There's an extra special (even specialler than normal) general meeting coming up next week. It's been petitioned for by the fans (I signed the petition myself, people seemed to feel pretty strongly about the stuff they wanted discussing). There's been arguments/debates about how many signatures are needed to get the meeting up & running, whether or not you'll be able to vote on stuff in advance if you aren't there, how big the room it's going to be held in and goodness knows what else. That's before the meeting itself takes place and folks get involved in the "50 + 1" stuff & all the old wounds that seems to open up. My own view on the "50 + 1" argument is that I don't really understand the ins and outs of it. My suspicion is that I'm in the vast majority of AFC Wimbledon fans in that respect, although not many are prepared to confess their utter cluelessness. 

My thoughts on the meeting before it happens are FWIW that both sides have it totally wrong. The DTB have to my mind not really engaged effectively with the fan base over the brief time I've supported Wimbledon. There is a deep suspicion amongst many fans that there is a "jobs for the boys" culture & that much of the decision making is made by the same old faces in the same old way. Many folks who support the club feel neither listened to nor respected and represented, and that's before you even get into the "PLC" board (don't ask me because I don't know) & whatever they're involved in. Because of this sense of bemusement amongst many supporters, such things as petitions for EXTRA, REALLY REALLY special General Meetings crop up. Because of the mistrust, the moment someone mentions that the meeting room might be too small it feels to many like some sort of Machiavellian ruse rather than the totally innocent logistical problem it no doubt is. The people that run the club need to engage better, and it's not enough to say that they stand in a tent at home games.

Where the more antagonistic fans in my view have it wrong, is that I think their general mistrust is misplaced. I know a lot of the folks who run the club on a personal level, they are thoroughly decent people who in my judgement just want to do the best for AFC Wimbledon. They give up their time (which would in many cases be prohibitively expensive to buy) for free. To this outsider/bandwagon jumper they look to be doing a bloody good job by and large and in nearly all cases, don't deserve nor bleed the villification.

In amongst the angst, it's worth reminding ourselves from time to time that we ARE all actually on the same side or supposed to be. I hope that whatever is thrashed out at the meeting, the main protagonists get together afterwards for a couple of beers. Perhaps that's what's missing, something to break down the perception of barriers.

On the football (remember THAT?) we are continuing to absolutely thrive. Despite being knocked to the canvas a couple of times against Ipswich & chasing shadows for much of the game, we clung on like a bulldog with lockjaw and got a famous win. I think we deserved it for pure endeavour. Then, in one of my favourite performances during the Johnny Jackson era we got over the line 1-0 against Fleetwood. Unlike the other teams we've played in the league, Charlie Adams men will be top ten in the league, and despite being brilliantly orchestrated by Danny Meyer we deserved the narrow win. It was a superb game of football between two good teams, I loved it.

Now, the MK game will tell us much. Given the strength of their squad I cannot even envisage them finishing outside the top three, if we beat them next Saturday then we are REALLY starting to look like a team that's going places. It won't be easy, they are a good side and as I've said already, will be helped in my opinion by playing yesterday.

As it is though, my "12th in the league" prediction continues to look way off. Fantastic stuff, and my "we are ugly to watch" observation is now under threat too after the last two performances. Long may it continue, here's hoping for a great week for the club both on and off the pitch. 👊

Reasons to be cheerful? The season so far.....

Drawing too many conclusions about a season only five matches old is a total mugs game, we all know that. As I've been called far worse than a total mug many times in my life though, I'm happy to do the "school report" before I even know all the kids names.

So let's start with a bit of "state the obvious", hopefully that might con the odd reader into thinking that occasionally I talk some sense. Johnnie Jackson, Craig Cope and Andy Thorne have put together a strong squad of players for the level. I don't obviously know how much say each of them has in the signing of the individual players, but I think we can safely guess that on the "Do we/Don't we" final flowchart, a "No" to the "Are they massive?" question meant we didn't sign them. We are giant, a huge football team. If one of the more innovative owners in League two has employed an ex basketball coach as manager, I suppose we might get "outsized". If not, I'd be amazed if we aren't the biggest team in the division. Size (as we all know/hope lads) isn't everything, but in the hurly burley of league Two it's certainly something.

Now if any fans of opposing teams in L2 are foolish enough to read this blog, let me tell you you ain't gonna enjoy playing against Wimbledon this season. As an aside I can tell you with some certainty that you ain't gonna enjoy WATCHING your team play against Wimbledon either. If ever a game was ripe for you to prove the Mrs wrong when she says "You NEVER miss a football match to take me to lunch on a Saturday", it's when you play us at your ground. Believe me. You're welcome.

So here we arrive at another state the obvious moment. We ain't gonna win the Johann Cruyff total football award for L2 this season. Don't Google it I made it up, but you get my drift. That's not to say that we don't have good footballers because we do, but we are totally route 0.5 (route one is for pussies seemingly). I looked at the possession stats for our convincing arm wrestle win at Cheltenham on Saturday. They were miles out. It had us down as being 60:40 in the ascendancy or something. Total nonsense. The possession stats for the game WERE in our favour, but it was more like 40:25:35. The 35% of the time in all of our games is when the ball is either up in the stratosphere or has bounced and people are chasing it. There are significant periods of our games where NOBODY is in possession of the football. To be in possession of it you have to be in control of it surely? So no, I stand by MY stats, 40:25:35 it is.

And where will it all take us? Well I predicted 12th before a ball was kicked, and I'd be erring towards us doing slightly better than that at the moment. That's not because we've won two out of three league games, (we've played some poor teams so far), but because the likes of Myles Hippolite, Ali Smith, James Ball and Josh Kelly are capable of being a lot better than we're currently seeing in my opinion. If we can get those guys firing, then we have a chance in my view of getting into the playoffs. We are good in defence (Ryley Harbottle is a fine acquisition), but we are going to need the aforementioned players to get our goals and chance creation stats going. Despite it being just about as dominant a 1-0 as you'll ever see against Cheltenham, we didn't in all honesty rack up chance after chance. We are going to need to do that against poor teams. 

Negatives? Well we are at times a brutal watch. No I'm sorry, we are. Even when there are acres of space in which to carry the ball, players completely ignore the opportunity. Even when there is a simple pass on, we still launch it. Catching us in possession is practically impossible because if an opposition player is anywhere near us, we smash it into the clouds. I totally get that this is the risk free approach, but I can't lie and tell you that I enjoy watching it massively. I'd love to see us go through the thirds and express ourselves but it's a long way off.  Jake Reeves sometimes gets it going for a moment or two,  but it soon fizzles out and we smash it again. I actually think that if we did play a bit more we'd be a better team, but it doesn't look likely at the moment.

That though wouldn't be my biggest gripe. No, that would be that we seem to have just about given up on playing our own youngsters. I get that Josh Neufville is learning the "wing-back" role as he goes, but we have two excellent young right backs sitting on their arse watching him do it. I get that out central midfielders are getting to know each other and standing back to back to see who is tallest, but what of young Morgan Williams, seemingly so bored with his lot these days that he's taken to cutting his own Barnet? There are others, young Ethan Sutcliffe looks to me like a lad who might just have it, Paris Locke, Kai Jennings too. All these kids could be the next on the Jack Rudoni/Jack Currie gravy train the club needs to pull into the station ever year or so. I said last season that if we pissed the league I'd have taken the "We couldn't have done THAT with kids" hook line & sinker. We didn't piss the league though, we were 10th. To this observer, being 12th instead but giving Williams a dozen starts, Sutcliffe a few, Ogundere/Biler a load in front of the long throw bloke etc would have been a price worth paying. Similarly, playing slightly more progressive football but not getting as many 0-0's at "tough places to come" would be a price that this watcher would happily stump up for.

As it is, it looks to me like we're kind of "all-in" this season. We've binned off a lad who successfully coached at all levels of the club for many years, we're in the process of binning off any claims that we prioritise our own youngsters, and we're binning off any pretensions that we are looking to play progressive, possession football. If it all works and we get promoted then I guess the school report would be an A*. If on the other hand we don't succeed, we might find that we've given up a fair amount of our DNA for little or no return.

That's the "all-in" move though I guess. Those of us who know poker know that by it's very nature it's a "shit or bust" move. Time will tell which.

AFC Wimbledon, What can we expect and hope for in the new season.

I'll tell you one thing, being a football manager can't be easy. There can't be many jobs where even if you do a much better job than last year you risk getting the sack, but that's exactly the game for Johnnie Jackson, Skivvers and the new coach fella this season.

Why? Well in my opinion the team we go into the new season with is by quite a margin weaker than the one that started last season. That's not anyone's fault particularly, but you can't expect to lose Alex Bass, Jack Currie and Ali Al-Hamadi while retaining the same strength. Those three (particularly Al-Hamadi who was the best player in the league by some distance) are practically irreplaceable at the level, I think time will brutally demonstrate that as we go along.

We have at least arguably improved the squad as a whole. The front four represent the most potent bunch of options there's been since I had a season ticket, we've also picked up an option or two in midfield. That said, one or two things concern me.

Jake Reeves was brilliant until Christmas last season, then fell away a bit towards the end. I think that is partially explainable by the fact that he isn't 17 feet tall (I've calculated that as being the optimum height for an AFC Wimbledon central midfielder given our tactics in the last dozen games). Like Josh Kelly, you'd expect him to improve if he hasn't got to jump nine feet into the air in order to receive the passes aimed at him, but like the striker he ALSO has a bit to prove this time around. Jake has to re find the incisiveness of pass that he had, to resist the temptation to go safe, pass it backwards, shirk responsibility as he began to do. Josh Kelly arrived bristling with intent, running diagonals and patterns which would twist any league two centre back into a half hitch granny. Never recieving the ball though gradually eroded his dash and his confidence. He became niggly to compensate, gradually allowing his David Speedie to overrule his Dennis Bergkamp (look if you're under 25, you're just going to have to Google it).

And what of Johnnie? In my view (and I appreciate this sounds ridiculous but let's face it, it's never stopped me before) probably his biggest problem is that people are a bit bored with him. Not that he's particularly done anything wrong or that he himself is boring (he's a perfectly nice fella in real life), it's just that being at a club into a third season is rare at the level. The meet the manager thing tonight will be sparsely attended, not because people don't like him but because folks have by now got a good idea what he's going to say. If for example Johnnie had been sacked last week and we'd put Jodie Morris (for example) in charge, people would be all over the thing tonight. Not because Jodie tells better jokes (although again he's a totally nice fella) but just because it's a new voice, something different.

And if we DID have a new manager, and they got us into say 12th this season, I reckon the fan-base would be pretty happy with that. If we got 12th without the ball having snow on it all of the time, all the better. The fans would likely reason that a season of consolidation after losing our best players was a decent effort. They might even argue that finishing 12th THIS season is in many ways a better achievement than finishing 10th last time.

I'd agree. 10th last time with THAT team was only a 7/10 in my book, it'll be harder this time. Of course though we haven't got a new manager, we've got a familiar face who's doing a solid job. 12th (my prediction) would be another solid result, but I'm not sure it would be enough to get the manager a 4th season.

My match report: Swindon Town v AFC Wimbledon.

It's not so much that the hope kills you, we've all gotta go sometimes. No it's the way it strangles and suffocates you slowly, leaving you gasping for breath before eventually the lights firstly dim then extinguish gradually. Such is the cruelty of hope that we aren't actually dead yet, not totally. Ultimately though after this defeat we know that our demise as a playoff contender is inevitable, as sure a thing as Die Hard being on the TV at Christmas.

It had all started so well in the first fifteen minutes. Swindon looked about as disorganised and demotivated as any team I've seen in ages, we tore into them and it looked like there could only be one winner. Big Joe Lewis headed us in front and I think a second goal would have turned it into a potential goal difference job.

Gradually though as we continually gave them ownership of the football, they put down the holiday brochures and began to get interested. Once they'd realised that if they tried something which didn't come off they were only going to have to wait 30 seconds before we gave them the ball back, they relaxed.

Of course we continued to threaten from mortar bomb throw ins, but once they got the games outstanding player (McEchran) on the ball more often, the tide began to turn. The little midfielder pushed and probed, displaying all of his Chelsea pedigree as he nudged his team back into the game.

In the second half they scored three goals. One of them very good, two of them gifted by us. Once we'd gone behind we made three subs, but in truth although we tried our guts out our play had an air of desperation about it. We got one back via the excellent short shorts adding a second, but time was against us and we slipped to defeat.

Defeat here didn't cost us a playoff spot, that has come about as the result of loads of factors which will no doubt be discussed at length. Ultimately this season has been much better than last, I just wonder whether history will judge it positively. I hope so, there has been much to like, despite the way it's ending. I think though that I probably speak for many when I say that I hope this particular brand of "football" isn't going to be our long term blueprint for success.

The long throw. Is it worth it?

There used to be a fella get in a pub I ran years back, Geoff his name was. Once when we rang the time at the bar bell he leapt off his chair and started shadow boxing, the whole place fell about laughing. Timing is everything in comedy as it is in life, Geoff nailed it.

The unfortunate thing was, from that day on he did it every single night he was in. We went full circle in terms of audience reaction. From polite smiles, to total silence, to "sit down silly bollocks" and finishing with people laughing AT him as opposed to with him. I had to have a quiet word with him in the end to save his embarrassment. I definitely don't think I nailed it even though my intentions were good, he stopped coming in.

As I often say, football reflects real life. I don't know if Ronnie Radford tried hitting it from 35 yards every time it rolled near him after his screamer against Newcastle, but I'm pretty sure that if he did he'd have quickly been told to give it a rest.

So what of our throw in? Well after Saturdays winning goal, it's caused two goals to be scored so far (that one plus the og versus Notts County). Given that, am I completely bonkers to be even talking about it? Let's have a look.

The first thing to point out is that Kofi Balmer obviously isn't a right back. He CAN play there, he is good defender who rarely gets embarrassed (if he does it's more of the him failing to control it rather than him getting skinned), and he lets nobody down. But he definitely isn't a right back. I'm going to be so bold as to suggest that if he couldn't throw the football like Captain Caveman hurling a boulder, we would play Ogs or Huss at right back. The impact on us as an attacking unit of having "Not a right back" playing there is quite profound. It isn't the ONLY reason that we have become so bereft of inspiration going forward, but like a boxer with a broken right hand, it is chief amongst the causes.

Then there is the question of the element of surprise. Much of the magic in sport is when someone does the unexpected. Nine times out of ten, it isn't the bouncer which gets the Test cricketer out, it's the yorker when the batter is EXPECTING the short one. We never seem to take the opportunity to throw a quick short one in, to perhaps vary it so the long throw is loopier, hits the edge of the box, even is thrown backwards so we can build the play while they have ten men in their own penalty area.

Like Geoff with his shadow boxing routine, we are in danger of becoming one trick ponies. If the throw in doesn't work (and it normally doesn't) we are seemingly at a loss to come up with an alternative.

So I ask the question. Are we getting it right already and I'm just talking bollocks again? Do we need to mix it up more, or should we play a right back at right back?