Mikey T, the vote & the team, some thoughts ......

A couple of weeks back we weren't playing that great but we were eeking out results. I decided not to post in case I "bokked" our good run, but now things have settled down a bit here are my thoughts. They aren't in ascending order of importance or anything, it's just how they're coming to me on my phone.

Mikey T.

I thought the pre game tribute to this wonderful man was a credit to the club yesterday. Around five or six years back when I morphed into a bandwagon jumping Wimbledon supporter, I first met Mikey on an away trip to (I think) Rotherham. He was introduced to me by big Craig, who'd told me about his encyclopedic knowledge of the club. I tested him out with MY first time seeing Wimbledon, in the early 70's when they played Scarborough away in the FA Trophy. That was in the same season they'd ran Don Revie's Leeds team to a replay, Mikey knew the date, the score & the goalscorer. Incredible really, we discussed the goal itself (Scarborough fluked it 1-0 after being totally battered), as well as the weather on the day. The only thing I knew which he didn't was the attendance. It was 8,105, I only remember that because I went with my Grandad, my Dad (now both passed) and my brother. My Grandad upon hearing the attendance said to me "If we hadn't gone son it'd have been 8,101". I don't know why that stuck with me, but it did. Anyway in that pub on the way to Rotherham Mikey endulged me, made time for me and we discussed the day in detail. It's because of people like him that my interest in Wimbledon became the passion it is today. I used to love his commentaries with their various obscure references which had me in stitches. His passing was my saddest day as a Wimbledon supporter, like many others I'll never forget him.

The Vote.

It's been interesting hearing the views of the Wimbledon fans who come into the Alex on this one. They are varied, with almost everyone being a "Vote Yes". There ARE some who are unsure though,  I should think that the most common phrases I've heard from them is that people "Can't believe the money on offer is so much", that the deal might be "Too good to be true" and asking "What's the catch?". 

Now here I've got to be totally honest. I aren't a forensic accountant nor am I a due diligence expert. I've never claimed to be Einstein (I pull pints for a living) and even if I COULD understand the ins and outs of it all (I can't obviously) I'd get bored out of my arse reading it. Someone told me the other day that according to their research, the billionaire AI bloke seems "a bit dodgy", but I reckon everyone from Elon Musk to Richard Branson has a skeleton or two in their cupboards if you dig deep enough, come to that so does everyone really. We all bung our money into banks that invest in God knows what God knows where, but we're all happy to take the interest payments at the end of the year. We've all paid two quid for a T shirt from Primark without worrying too much about how much the bugger who stitched it together is getting paid, so none of us are perfect.

The biggest BUT for me though is that the fella who's been doing all of that digging on behalf of the club just happens to be a mate of mine. Graham Price (Pricey to everyone who knows him) does this stuff for a living & he has dedicated the last eighteen months to finding the right deal for the club. He's as sharp as a tack, doesn't suffer fools and isn't a bullshitter. HE says it's the right deal for the club, and that'll do for me. I've voted YES, I would have voted yes twice if we were in some banana republic situation and the rules weren't so strict. Please please please vote yes too, we are on the verge of exciting times. It LITERALLY takes five seconds of your life.

The team.

Obviously we've ran into a bit of a sticky patch. The thing that surprises me most is that people are surprised. I mean, you lose two out of three of your first choice centre halves and you start conceding more goals? Whod've thunk that? You have to play a right footed striker at left wing back and you lack a bit of fluency? Amazing. You miss your best goalscorer all season & you don't score many goals? Wow.

Look, we are in the trenches right now & we're digging, it's tough. The good thing is that by hook or by crook (or even by luck on the odd occasion) we've gathered some points which means we aren't (yet) in the dooh-dah. My hunch is that unless we get some players back soon we will be before long, but if and when that happens it's OK, we've been there before and providing we do things properly, we CAN survive this season. Just a couple of things though as fans......

Ryan Johnson-I've read that his "legs have gone". I must have missed those performances in the past where he was sprinting around with Virgil Van Dyke like acceleration. Ryan was NEVER the quickest, he's not in the team for his pace. Our captain is having to play centre half in a three alongside two "non" centre halves. It ain't easy, cut the fella some slack FFS. My prediction is that when Ogs is fit, Ryan will suddenly find his legs again. In the meantime, give the fella a break. 

Aron Sasu-Until his spell up top and his missed chance yesterday, I thought he was again close to being our best player. My advice to the kid is twofold. One, close your ears. There are now some folks more concerned with being "right all along" than they are seeing you thrive. Two, you cut inside & hit it with your right twice yesterday, do it more. Get it, shift it, hit it. It should be your stock move.

One last thing....

Terry Skiverton.

It's increasingly become obvious that Terry hadn't actually twisted his ankle. There have been lots of conspiracy theories around, but it's desperate news to hear about his illness. Skivvers is another fine man who always makes time to talk to people, even when we're pissed, talking bollocks and he's just trying to relax. If anyone can beat it he can, he's as tough as fuck. All the best Terry ❤️

Don't talk to me about luck, I'm not having it.

Sometimes in sport you get lucky, sometimes unlucky. The funny thing about it though is that it happens in EVERY game of football on numerous occasions, we only summise whether we were lucky or otherwise by the final result.

Foden unlucky to get sent off yesterday? For sure, but his team won so nobody cares. Man U unlucky on Haalands goal? Yep, and because they lost we summise that City were lucky to win? Nah not for me. City defended brilliantly, and crucially they CAPITALIZED on their slice of luck, the other team didn't. As such, they 100% deserve to win.

Thankfully at our level we don't have to contend with the nonsense of VAR, but in terms of teams missing chances against us you could argue that we have been "lucky". You could argue it, but save bothering me with such nonsense. It's not OUR fault teams have fluffed chances. It's not Johnnie Jackson's fault that they've missed sitters, it IS though hugely to his and the players credit that we have capitalized on their errors by getting a goal and winning the game. There is no point been given not out when plum LBW first ball if you get bowled in the next over. Sport is all about maximising your opportunity to win, if fate deals you an opening you've got to take it. If the opposition deals you an opening it's THEIR FAULT, not good luck.

So we are 4th in the table and the players, manager and coaching staff deserve huge credit. They aren't daft, they know there will be lots of choppy water ahead, they know we will get UNlucky at some point, but equally they'll know that when we do, the trick is not to allow one such moment to define the outcome of 90 minutes. The best teams do that. City did it yesterday, Arsenal did it the other day via an incredible save from their goalkeeper. Hopefully we can too. I said a couple of weeks back that it'll be a long season, it will. If we finish above 16th they should build a statue of Johnnie Jackson outside the ground. It's gonna be hard, but we've gotta keep giving ourselves a chance.

Joe Bersik

With all due respect to the other lads who've had a go recently, Joe is an obvious step up. Saturday was the first time I've seen him play, the difference a solid goalie makes is incredible. Well done to him & whoever recruited him 👏

Freddie Simmonds

A couple of lads in the pub told me they thought he struggled. I asked them really what did they expect? An 18yo kid playing centre half, gangly & built like my lad was six years ago (he's 24 now & built like a brick shithouse) playing in mens league football for the first time. He will have learnt absolutely loads, and from the moment he got out muscled in his first contact with the centre forward he steadily improved. By the end he'd really grown into it & I for one think he'll make a proper player. He's a modern centre half (good looking, can pass it) and while the first of those won't last for long, he'll make a good player. I for one thought he did really well, looks like a good kid to me as well.

Olly Harrison

The biggest barrier to this kid playing well now he's getting up to speed is getting the rest of our lads to trust him. Give him the ball, it doesn't matter if he hasn't got much room he'll make it work. No point in playing him for his defensive capabilities because they aren't there yet, but he CAN really play. I like the lad as when we go through him we look like a better team to me, there is more variation & control about us.

Callum Maycock.

It's nice to be right about something for once. I along with many fans led the campaign for Callum to start & we were right. He's a cracking footballer who leaves it all out there.

Anyway, COYD & let's smash these on Thursday 👊

It's gonna be a long season.

Have you ever had a dodgy knee? A dicky hip maybe? If you have you'll know that it effects the way you sit, the way you walk, everything. As sure as eggs is eggs before long your OTHER knee starts giving you jip too, your other hip. See the problem is that you over compensate for the dodgy bit, it isn't long until you feel you're falling apart at the seams.

Football teams are a bit like that. A well organized machine, a group of guys coached into a watertight unit can suddenly fall apart. Suddenly stuff which came naturally looks much more difficult, soon your "unit" looks like a disorganised rabble, so it was with AFC Wimbledon last night.

Quite what the "dodgy" bit which started it all off we could debate all day, but quite clearly something wasn't clicking at all. If you were looking for individual scapegoats you could point to Myles Hippolyte on the first goal, meekly letting the lad comes inside him without making a challenge. You might argue it was the young striker making his debut naively sticking his foot in (there's the over compensation) to give the free kick away. Maybe you'd say it was neither of those and point out that if Ally Smith had stood up straight & perhaps jumped three inches he'd have blocked it. On the second goal you could legitimately ask where Ryan Johnson was going before the cross came in, for the third you could ask where all of our midfield was to allow their fella a free shot. None of that stuff would be wrong in itself, but in my view none of those players (who have been brilliant for us) are the route cause of our difficulties. None of them are causes, all of them are in my opinion anyway symptoms.

Our form for quite a while now if you include last season has been extremely patchy (that's putting it mildly) and that isn't the result of individual errors, people "switching off"  or any of that stuff, not in my mind anyway. No, we have a deeper problem which I'm afraid that unless we address it we are going to only occasionally play to our potential.

And what is it silly bollocks I hear you ask. Well for me the root cause of our issues is that we severely lack pace at the back. It's interesting that our downturn in form appears to me (I haven't checked it, I'm not a stats guy) to have coincided with Joe Lewis getting injured last season. He HAD pace when he played, and as always in football that particular attribute covers an absolute multitude of sins. 

We've replaced big Joe with Dan Sweeney who in fairness has probably been our player of the season so far. He wins everything in the air & reads it well, but much like Jonno alongside him isn't the quickest by a long chalk. The follow on from that (particularly when you add in the pace or lack thereof the fullbacks) is that we have to defend 5-10 yards deeper. The follow on from THAT is that our midfield sits 5-10 yards deeper. If like last night we decide to press higher, if the opposition play through it we are left with a wide expanse of open space in the centre.

Our defence has a difficult choice to make then. Either shove in and allow any sort of channel ball or one over the top to cause nightmares, or sit out & have people running at you from all directions with the football.

BECAUSE we are sitting deeper, when we do get it forward our midfielders have got to bust a gut to get up & support them bust a gut again to get back. Before the game is very old our front men become isolated & it all kind of breaks down.

Solutions? Well firstly the usual caveat, I pull pints for a living not train football teams BUT, since you ask (I know nobody did but run with me here).

1. We have to get some pace into our defence. That means at least in the short term if we're going to play three centre backs (or indeed two), Jonno & Dan Sweeney probably shouldn't start together (unless it's a three & for example the Brighton kid is lightening). Similarly, I think Sessignon has to start, to the naked eye he looks like he can get across the ground. Once we have that, we must bite the bullet/take the risk & defend higher.

2. We have to have a holding midfielder. If we had one last night whoever it was had forgotten the first of their two word job description. Ali Smith is the obvious choice here, but as I say if that was what he was supposed to be doing last night then he has to do it a lot better. If we were to try & be more progressive in possession Olly Harrison would be ideal, but given our style Smith gets the nod from me.

3. To my mind we have to play Callum Maycock. If you are going to play a direct style and I think by now we can take it that we are, in order to make it work you need marathon men, Duracell bunny midfielders. We are asking our lads in the middle to chase like a dog in the park after an empty crisp packet, to get up and support when we go forward then sprint back and help when we go backwards. Callum wouldn't technically be our best, but he is MADE for that role. He'd be my first midfielder on the team sheet currently.

4. We have to have an alternative means of attack to Jayden Stockley. He's been excellent so far, great header last night, but he can't play every game and certainly not for 90 minutes. And his partner must be able to run continuously. I thought the young boy did well last night and he'll be a player for us, but unsurprisingly given he hasn't played much he looked leggy after ten minutes. I suppose like everyone else I'm itching to see Matty Stevens alongside Stockley as it looks like a marriage made in heaven, but until then we ought to try and vary our attack a little.

None of these points above are there to slag anyone off please understand. These players took us up and kept us up as did the manager, I love every one of em. It's clear though that unless we change a few things we are going to be very quickly in deep dooh-dah. Rather than just screaming "THIS IS FUCKING SHITE!" I thought I'd offer an opinion as to what we might do differently.

AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Wigan. My match report...

The visitors will probably be smarting as they drive out of Plough Lane, they'll be wondering how on Earth they lost that  game. I must confess I can't help them as I don't know either, but they did & we're very happy with the points.

Say what you like about Johnnie Jackson but he isn't afraid of inviting negative comments with his team selection. His decision to go with Aron Sasu as Jaydon Stockleys partner had the fans scratching their heads over their pre match pints in the Alex. Not me obviously as I rate the kid, but given how low his stock is with many fans this was a brave call. Did it come off? Well I personally thought Sass put in his most complete performance for us in a competitive match, but such was the frequency that shots were raining down on our goal I shouldn't think anyone noticed overly.

Wigan (who looked like a decent team to me) were seemingly able to cut through our midfield at will and only a combination of some wayward finishing & some good goalkeeping kept it 0-0 at half time.

In the second half we improved, but still the Wigan centre forward put one over the bar from the centre of an open goal four yards out. Our subs when they came energized us however, and it wasn't a surprise (to me) when we took the lead five minutes from time. This was a good finish from Myles Hippolyte assisted by the new striker from Forest who'd come on a sub. I liked the look of him, very aggressive & looks like he could make a player for us.

There was still time for some very hairy moments, a couple of goalie saves, a baffling tactical approach which saw us instantly giving possession away whenever we won it, but we got over the line so who cares?

My suspicion is that wins for us are going to be very hard won this season, we should enjoy this one & not worry too much stats & stuff.

Fulham 3-0 AFC Wimbledon

I don't think I can ever remember a 3-0 defeat generating quite so much debate amongst the losing teams supporters than our fairly comfortable "seeing off" by Fulham last night. The manager said he was proud of the team, the Chairman said we "Lived our values" (no, me neither) & while plenty of fans agree with them if you go online or were in the pub last night, many viewed our performance with utter dismay & disillusion. One thing we can all agree on is that the fans were utterly magnificent, but the question of whether or not we DID actually "Go for it" as the manager promised we would caused plenty of debate.

From my seat I thought we played very well under extremely difficult circumstances, and on the "wentforitometer" I had the needle firmly settling into the green "As well as we could" section. For sure not rattling round into the "balls out kamikazi" red zone, but definitely well clear of the "didn't give a shit" blue section.

I aren't privvie to Johnnie's team talks, but I'm fairly sure "stay in the game" will have figured a few times during it. Dead right too, as was the "Slow the game down at every opportunity" section which no doubt existed. Let's face it, we haven't got a single player who currently would get near their squad never mind first team (I guess Junior Nkeng possibly could given time) so to embark on a "Let's have a free flowing end to ender & see who comes out on top" would have been madness (in my opinion anyway). The 3-0 could have very easily been double figures if we'd gone down that route, so I for one totally agree with the decision not to go there.

Equally at 2-0 down at half time, that isn't (once again in my opinion) the time to "go for it". You are still totally in the game at 2-0, and I'm fairly sure the thought process would have been that if it's still 2-0 with ten minutes to go, we've only got to nick a goal from a set piece or something and it's game on. Once again, that is EXACTLY what I would have said, so if Johnnie did I can hardly criticize. In fact to that end we DID stay in the game and were only eventually killed off by a goal from a player they signed from Real Madrid for 40 million quid 😂.

Of course we didn't get EVERYTHING right, I'm not saying that. Steve Seddon (who I love) won't need me to tell him that his set piece deliveries in the first half were rubbish. They were always going to provide us with our best chances of scoring a goal, so I imagine the groans off the bench were just as loud as they were in the away end when he fluffed it. Aron Sasu continued to frustrate, although it's worth pointing out that playing up top on your own against four Premier League defenders was always going to be about as easy a gig as a fella having his first go at standup in front of three pissed up pool playing Scotsmen at the Edinburgh fringe. In fairness if you WERE that unfortunate aspiring comedian, you'd know that quietly reading out jokes was going to get you nowhere. In fact anything you did was likely to get you nowhere, so fuck it you might as well jump on the pool table, drop your kegs & get the old todger out. At least they'd have remembered you, perhaps Aron should have channelled a bit of that energy (in a football sense), last night.

My biggest criticism though (and l'll bet it drove the coaching staff mad) was that we were WAY too nice. I'm not advocating running around kicking people, in fairness we wouldn't be able to catch em anyway, but we didn't give away anywhere near enough fouls in the centre circle or when the ball went anywhere near Sasu.

In the centre circle, on second balls (after we've won a defensive header) the mindset should have been either we win it, our we foul their bloke when HE looks like winning it. Like I say I'm not talking Kung Fu kicks, I'm talking jumping into people, getting across them, handballing it by accident, that sort of shite. Then, when the ref gives the free kick (a note on him later) you can dispute it, debate it, delay it. All of this stuff helps to break the game up which was always going to be to our advantage. I'd have been saying to Sasu, I want you to commit AT LEAST three fouls in the first half. If the ball goes anywhere near you and youre not going to get it, throw yourself at their bloke who is. Grapple, hold, back in, jump in, whatever. I want three fouls MINIMUM per half though. He could try this next time he comes on, he's waaay too nice.

And the ref? Fuck me. I don't think he gave us a single 50/50 call all night. He penalised Jayden Stockley at the end for the clearest case of "six of one" I've ever seen. In order to win the game we'd have needed EVERYTHING to drop in our favour, the referee was one of a lot of things which didn't.

Anyways we move on. No doubt the players that were "carrying knocks" will recover by Sunday, and we really must try & get something against Wigan.

Kai Jennings. Is this the correct decision?

By & large over the recent years that I've followed them, I've been a bit of a happy clappy Wimbledon fan. Even though the football isn't always reminiscent of the Milan team of the 90's, I love everything about how we try & do stuff the right way. There's also something which appeals to my cussedness about ALWAYS being outgunned financially, ALWAYS being the underdog. I tend not to criticise the players and/or the manager too much, I fully get that the job ain't easy and that they are all trying their best. Such has been my "positivity" over the years that I've on one or two occasions been called a dickhead to my face for not seeing the "dark side". Online it's much heavier, my support for players such as Aron Sasu puts a target firmly on my back. The arrows aimed at it are mostly good humoured, but by no means all.

That's all good though, it goes with the territory & I think it's unlikely that I will become downbeat anytime soon.

But. But, but. I feel compelled to comment on the decision to allow Kai Jennings to go out on loan for the last year of his contract. I know nothing about the situation, but my guess is that Kai indicated that he wasn't prepared to sign a new contract with us. Because of that, we felt that we may as well let him bugger off a year early.

Here's my problem though, and I appreciate it's all about opinions. I think Kai is 100% a good enough MIDFIELDER to be getting lots of minutes for us, IN MIDFIELD. I think he is a kid of rare talent who given the opportunity could develop into a very decent footballer who we could possibly sell on.

I personally think it's madness to firstly play him at wing back (where even there he was decent) but then not give him a chance in midfield. I think this is a huge mistake on the part of the manager and director of football. Like I say I 100% GET that's it's all about opinions, but that's mine.

I

Some thoughts on a difficult opening day.

Getting Huddersfield away first game up was a bit of a double edged sword in many ways. For sure not ideal in terms of building momentum but at least I guess we get a trip to a team who will undoubtedly be up there "out of the way". It's worth briefly adding a bit of context to the defeat, the fella who scored Huddersfields first two goals cost one million euros. Of course that doesn't mean you are without hope, but it does obviously indicate the budgetry imbalance.

The reality in the game lets face it was that we were comfortably beaten. I used the word "comfortably" advisedly here. To my mind getting beat is inevitable from time to time in football, but getting beat "comfortably" should never be an option. By comfortably I mean the opposition could beat you 6-0 but they should never enjoy playing against you, it ought to always be the sort of game that they can't wait to finish. It should never be as it was yesterday, the opposition high fiving & having a day in the sun. No, we've got to be nastier than that, much uglier, a whole lot more niggly. If we DON'T make it like that, then more skilful, more trickier, more expensive players are going to put us to the sword every week, it's going to be a long season.

Anyway aside from that general observation, here's some of my thoughts.

Aron Sasu

It's inevitable that I mention him. My banging on all over social media yesterday that "If he plays, he WILL score" aged about as well as raw prawns in the sun. Obviously I deservedly took stick for that, any credibility that I do/did have (admittedly not much) is disappearing like bath water down a bucket sized plug hole.

My thoughts on his first half display yesterday were yes he didn't get any service, I'll give him that much. BUT, there were two instances where he had me throwing easy peel tangerines at the telly (My wife had moved the apples out of reach). Before I detail them, Aron should ask himself what Matty Stevens would have done. I've said before that if Matty had Sasu's pace & build he'd play in the Premier League. There are LOTS of things Aron Sasu can do that Matty Stevens can't, yet there are also lots of things the other way around & yesterday there were two perfect examples.

The first was when we worked it wide and it got fired across the six yard box, away from the keeper. The Huddersfield guy did well to clear it in fairness, Sasu was behind him ready to tap in. What would Matty Stevens have done? Well I can tell you right now there is not a chance on God's Earth that the fella would have been able to "comfortably" clear it as he did. Stevens would have been all over him like a Scousers shellsuit. He would have either scored or there would have been a resulting scramble, or we would be surrounding the ref for a penalty shout. I've played centre half, fuck me you are EXPECTING a fight once that ball comes in. Standing behind me & going "Aw Sheesh I nearly had that" is not what strikers do.

The second one was at the end of the first half. Channel ball gets knocked down the left, the defender is the favourite & does well, gets in front & down by the corner flag is looking to clear it. Now with my centre half's head on again, I am EXPECTING to get smashed into row B of the seating into the corner, the corner flag landing on my head & the ball hitting row L. That's what would have happened if I'm defending Matty Stevens, 100%. Fair enough too, I've been fighting him all game, only natural his eyes are gonna light up here. Sass? Stood back & let him clear. Fuck no. I've known lads in football who if they were playing for us would have gone through him like a dose of salts for that.

Must do better, a lot better. Must be harder, a lot harder.

James Tilley as the last man.

To my mind, Tills is by quite a distance our most likely scorer from outside the box. I guess we've asked the question, are we more likely to score with Isaac Ogundere in the box or Tilly outside it? I think we've come up with the wrong answer, particularly when you factor in the "With which one are we more likely to CONCEDE?".

I just think we've got this one wrong, we should bin it off. 

Olly Harrison

It's obvious that this kid can play, you haven't even got to see him on the ball to know that. You've only got to see his head movement when he's asking for the ball to see that he knows his onions, then when he does get it his two reverse passes through the lines like yesterday show you that he sees great pictures. He's the most naturally talented midfielder we've had since Maghoma I should think, but 18yo holding midfielders in mens football come with complications as their third goal yesterday demonstrated.

I'd very much like to see him given opportunities, but there are a couple of caveats if we're going to get the benefit of his loan season and see him near his best.

When he IS on the pitch, we are probably going to need to be less direct otherwise there's no point in playing him. He isn't athletic enough yet to be a Callum Maycock Duracell type, and he ALWAYS comes in short to build/start the play. He's really potentially going to be VERY good at that, but if like yesterday we aren't going to give him the ball & let him dictate, there's no point in playing him.

Second thing is he either has to learn very quickly, or at 18 he isn't yet ready to play as a 4 in L1. I'd still play Ally Smith in there, but this kid would be an excellent 6. To do THAT though he's gonna have to come out of the pocket/comfort zone and get up & down more. I like him though, smashing footballer.

Anyways I could go on (and do). No point in going through the areas of the goals where players could have done better, the lads themselves will know. I'd just like us a team to be a nastier than we were yesterday, that's a minimum.