"One of these days someone is going to get a battering" is one of the oldest cliches in football. You don't normally have that feeling after being on the wrong end of two four goal maulings in a week however. So my guess is that like me, most AFC Wimbledon fans weren't expecting THAT performance.
In truth the first twenty minutes or so WAS typical us. Our skirmishes in the first twenty minutes are almost always "bloke looks at another bloke from fifty yards away then forgets about it", rather than "kebab shop punch up", this was no different. Cheltenham passed it around a bit, we ran around a bit and the whole thing was flatter than slowly drunk lager. Around the ground, discussions were just starting to veer off onto the merits of Jake Reeves chopping the man bun, Omar Bugiels impressive moustache etc when out of nothing we scored.
Alex Pearce did what he does and punted it forward, Omar did what he does and flicked it on, Ali did what he does and buried it. It was a goal of beautiful simplicity, and like when a 24 handicapper creams one down the middle and says "Why can't I do that every time?", it looked very repeatable but probably isn't. Before long we were two up, the excellent Connor Lemonheigh-Evans putting Tilley through, the wee man did the rest. Tills looked relieved to have "finally" scored one, he hasn't for about three games or something inconsequential. He should worry less, he owes us nothing.
As we took a walk around the concourse in the (as it turned out mistaken) belief that as there were less people there we might be able to get a beer, most expected a backlash from the league one team. Quick note here, the "sorry you can't have a pint at half-time unless you miss ten minutes of football" thing is getting a bit wearing now. God knows how much revenue we miss out on.
Anyway there WAS a backlash, but it came from us. Tills lashed in the third with a cracking volley, Josh came off the bench looking sharp as a tack and smashed in the fourth. Then Connor L-E absolutely broke the net with our goal of the season for the fifth. I know the season is only a third of the way through, but if anyone scores a better goal than that I'll show my arse in Elys window (let's all hope it doesn't happen).
After that they woke up a bit, Josh rattled the bar (I forgot that Armani Little did too) and Ali could literally have scored six. Unfortunately though for us and him, although he's brilliant he can only do it if someone passes to him. On numerous occasions he had a tap-in waiting to happen, only to see whoever had the ball preferring to shoot themselves. Tills did it many times (too many in my view) then Jimmy Ball did it in the dying seconds also. There's not much point in having a top striker if we don't feed him when he's in. It will probably have driven Ali mental, and it is my only criticism of what was a brilliant performance.
Anyway, we absolutely took them apart. "The gold cup, the book festival, Dom Joly (I Googled it), your boys took a hell of a beating" etc etc. Some reflection? Two defeats didn't mean we were shite, and a 5-1 win doesn't mean we're going to win the Champions League. The deep pan Bristol car showroom thing on Tuesday will run its course, but Doncaster at home next week will be a stern test. They are a good team who've made a poor start, but they ARE getting going now. I think it'll be a tight game, the fans need to enjoy this win but not get too carried away. The players might well need us to get behind them for periods next weekend, hopefully we step up.
COYD
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