End of season awards....

So it only seems right that we have a little Scores on the Dores awards ceremony for what was a totally brilliant 2024-25 season. Disagree all you want, but here's my take.....

Most improved player-It has to be Owen Goodman, obviously aided and abetted by our incomparable goalkeeping coach, Bayzo. He came in at the start of the season and looked about as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Very few people that I spoke to had any hope for him, but just gradually the calamities and hesitation went from once every three games to once every six, then finally into the "pretty much never" column. 

Sporting an Afro which gives him a "Huggy Bear from Starsky & Hutch's best mate" look, he seemed to almost visibly grow as the season went on. Nothing short of astonishing in the away leg of the playoff semi finals, I've now got no doubt that he will become a goalie out of the very top drawer.

Best young player-Has to be Isaac Ogundere. Now his Mum has cleared us the pronunciation (it sounds a bit like how Speedy Gonzales used to say "Eeba, Eeba, Underay") I feel like we all appreciate Isaac even more. Has a real gift for a defender, the choirboy looks and constantly surprised eyebrows giving him a look of innocence which bely his "dirty bugger" tendencies. He's able to kick people at will and the referees can't seem to shake off that "Ah but he's such a nice lad" impression.

Rock solid defender who has a smidge of pace, he bombs forward like a drunk trying to get to the kebab shop before the shutters go down. I've made no secret of the fact he's my favourite player, superb attitude who deserves every success he'll get.

Most exciting player-Another easy choice, it's Aaron Sasu. Quicker than a knife fight fight in a phone booth and trickier than a magicians hat, he can light up the game with one burst of magic. Glides across the turf like a racehorse and doesn't leave footprints, he'd have an Apache tracker scratching his feathered headdress in bemusement.

At the moment watching him is like watching a sketch show as opposed to a Ricky Gervais crafted comedy. It's all snippets and snipbits, some of it works well while other bits fall flat on their arse. The good bits though, Wow. I've always said with young players that the best thing is not to focus your energy on what they CAN'T do, it's best to treasure what they CAN do. When that treasure in the CAN column is stuff that nobody else is capable of, polish it.

Aaron Sasu can be absolutely anything. If you're not excited by him, you're watching a different game to me.

Player of the season-Gladiators, READY! It's surely only a matter of time until we lose him to the TV show (My suggestion for the name is "DRAGON") as not only will he earn more cash but his shorts will be even tighter and shorter than he wears them for Wimbledon.

Of course I'm talking about Joe Lewis. What a player, what a man, what a leader. There's more to him than short shorts (no really ladies, there IS) and he was magnificent for us last season. Had he not gotten injured, we'd have won the league.

Best Awayday-Doncaster. It always is (for me), and this time not only did we get to experience some cracking Northern pubs but we were treated to a superb game of football too. It was a real backs to the wall display down to ten men, then at the end we almost won it with a swashbuckling Joe Lewis burst.

Anyway, roll on League One!

Season review part 4: The brains trust.

Given I've started every other category with an "It ain't easy" forword, it seems only fair to point out what the lads who plot our course through a season are up against. Outgunned massively in the transfer market every season due to budgetary restrictions and having to deal with some of the most expensive local housing in the country isn't exactly what you'd have high on the wishlist as a manager. Add in a pitch which collapsed, lots of injuries at the same time and a living disproval last season of the "it all balances out" theory when it comes to refereeing decisions and you get to realize what they were up against.

Despite that, in many ways we had the perfect season. Getting promoted at Wembley is THE BEST way of doing it, and although you could frame an argument which says we really should have done it automatically, now we did it our way I wouldn't swap it for anything. Sure Port Vale had a knees up at Plough Lane when they got promoted, but comparing that to OUR party was like trying to draw parallels with a couple of pints to celebrate a 43rd birthday down the local to a 21st birthday beano in Ibiza. There's no comparison, we had the perfect season and I'm not having it any different.

Anyways, here's my take on how the coaching staff/Craig Cope went during the season.

Bayzo-I've got to the point now where I'm considering telling my boy to give his career up in the city to take up goalkeeping. He's 6ft 4, daft as a brush and never played in goal before, but I reckon Bayzo could get him in the England squad by the time the next World Cup comes around. 

Seriously this fella is a genius (not our Charlie, Bayzo). The improvement in Owen Goodman as the season progressed has been nothing short of staggering. We should build a statue of our goalkeeper coach outside of Plough Lane.

Skivvers-It's always hard to comment when you don't really know what's going on (although it's never stopped me before so I will) but I THINK Skivvers job is primarily to coach the defenders. If I'm right, you have to say that although I'm not doing scores, this fella is due a 10/10. Our defence all season has been absolutely rock solid, there have been periods where we haven't even looked like conceding a shot never mind a goal.

Skivvers interviews very well too in my opinion. In person and on camera he comes across as an awful nice bloke, but there's something in the sideways glance that tells me that he'd have it in him to go through someone like a dodgy curry if provoked. He's probably a bit unlucky too in that he has a very impressive barnet but happens to be sitting next to the fella with surely the best one in the EFL, so nobody mentions it.

I think he's a shrewd operator though Skivvers, I'm not in the least bit surprised that Johnnie Jackson from day one as a manager wanted this bloke alongside him.

Dave Rennington-Came in at the start of the season as the supposed boffin of all things 5-3-2. It was probably Johnnies most cut throat moment since he became our manager to bin off club stalwart Rob Tuvey in favour of this lad, but I guess it shows just how badly he wanted to get him on board. 

I must confess I miss Rob, I like him as a man and rate him as a coach, but you can't argue with the results. My one criticism of the Renningtonisation of our team is that the football can look at times a little robotic. We were never great at playing with lots of freedom and piling men forward, it appears to this naked eye that we have become even less adventurous this season gone.

If course I could be wrong and all of that could be bugger all to do with our new coach. If he plays poker against you though and shoves "all in", my guess would be that he has a hand (pocket aces would be my guess). Maybe he'd surprise me and turn over 6 2 off suit once everyone has folded, but I doubt it.

It'll be interesting to see him plotting a shape which allows us to stay solid in league one.

Johnnie Jackson-There's no question in my mind that the teams fortunes and league position have almost exactly mirrored Johnnies development as a manager. We bombed out in his first season and almost got relegated, if I'm honest I thought in that period he made a bit of a dog's arse of it. I'd personally have pulled the trigger at the end of that first season, but the board stuck with him and it's proved to be an inspired call.

He and we went much better in the second season, but I think it's in the second half of THIS season where he's really started to flourish. Now I know that our results were actually better in the FIRST half of the season, but we have good players and we found our level. It's towards the END of the season when I thought he really came into his own. The substitutions got earlier, they were bolder, not necessarily like for like and the selections got funkier too. Sure it didn't work ALL of the time, but I'm convinced his freshened up approach had a reciprocal impact upon the team. We won our last four matches, all of them MUST WINS and we didn't concede a goal. That'll do for me.

Yes I wish he'd go for it more, yes I wish he'd drop the "It's a tough place to come" interviews, but this lad has grown a lot as a manager. That's a good thing, we are going to need him on his A game if we are going to have a chance of staying up next season.

Craig Cope-Arguably our most important signing for many a year, "Copey" continues to do everything possible to help us defy the odds. Last seasons recruitment when taken as a whole basket was a piece work of the very highest order, and only the Josh Kelly signing (only in terms of fit not in terms of his quality) continues to baffle me.

My guess is that he'll unearth a couple of gems next season too, which is handy because as anyone with anything resembling a clue already realizes, we are bang up against it.

Anyways what a season, what a club. That's all from the Scores on the Dores for now, roll on August!

Season review part 3: It's tough up top.

Playing up top for us is no simple task, let's be honest. We expect our front men to run their bollocks off chasing mostly lost causes, get their arses back and defend when we haven't got it, and while they're at it score a few goals from very few clear cut chances created. If they can stick a paintbrush up their arse and redefine the penalty spot while they're at it then much the better, but suffice to say this is no easy gig.

Some can't really come to grips with it, others have thrived in the guerilla warfare/behind enemy lines nature of it all. Because let's be totally clear this is no battle of the Sommes, everyone piling over the top to get stuck in. No, the front players plough pretty much a lone furrow. Like John Voigt scaling his way out of that ravine to take out his toothless, pig squeel inducing tormenter, our front men are in their own really. On they go, game after game, faces daubed with camouflage paint and daggers between their teeth.

Given it's no two foot gimme, I've not done a "Scores on the Dores" for the season, but here's how I think our lads up top have gone.

Omar Bugiel-Out of all our front players, Omar is probably THE one that our system suits the most. Never happier than when battling for lost causes and contesting headers which he has no right to win, he's equally adept at dropping in and nicking the ball in the centre circle.

I often think that Omar is a much better footballer technically than we see week in and week out. Just occasionally he gives us a glimpse of his softer, more creative side. Like a graffiti scrawler who secretly likes to paint landscape watercolor, he can with a deft layoff or an outside of the boot finish make you wonder if there's a touch of the Roberto Firminho in there to go with the obvious Duncan Ferguson tendencies.

I think at his best he's one of our best players, but as the season progressed (probably because I rate him so highly) I thought he could have done more. His goal tally isn't high enough for a player of his talent, and although he works absolutely tirelessly for the team a good starting point next season might be for him to score more goals than he gets yellow cards.

I love him though. The way he whirls that bandage off his wrist when he's inevitably substituted around the 70 minute mark has something of the Robert De Nero as Jake LaMotta about it. You could play Omar being taken off in slowmo in black and white on the big screen, with Calallerio Rusticana belting out of the speakers. There wouldn't be a dry eye in the house.

Matty Stevens-Something of a season of two halves for the pint sized assassin from Frimley. He's a deadly finisher when given the opportunities, but if the chances dry up then on the evidence of the second half of the season, so does he.

That's not a criticism of a player I like a lot, just something I think to consider going forward. I suppose it's unfair to expect an arch poacher to take up a job as a tractor driver if there's no game on offer, but either we have to work out a way of creating more chances or Matty has to suss out a method of creating them for himself.

Without chances he becomes a tireless huffer and puffer who gives absolutely everything for the cause but never really looks likely to pierce the oppositions armoury. Like a pigeon who repeatedly smashes into a corrugated iron shed he looks unlikely to ever break through, but you definitely can't fault the lads effort or gusto with which he attacks it.

My hunch is that next season we'll create even less chances than we did this, if that is the case then Matty might have to be an off the bench hitman as opposed to being the first in through the front door.

Josh Kelly-I said at the start that our system doesn't suit everyone, I may as well have just said that it doesn't suit Josh Kelly. Most of our transfer dealings under Craig Cope have worked very well or at the very least you can see the thinking behind them, in the case of this lad I'm a bit baffled as to what we ever really expected to happen.

It's fairly clear when you watch Josh play what kind of system he'd flourish in. To me if he was playing for Notts County or you know who, one of those high possession teams that move it side to side through the thirds before slipping a striker in then he'd be in his element. He's quick over ten yards, perceptive and strong and I think a good finisher too. I personally think he's a VERY good player but is unfortunately totally unsuited to the way we play.

He's tried his very best to adapt, played out of position wide and often done pretty well, but I can't help thinking that unless we play a slightly different way (which I think is unlikely) we aren't going to see the absolute best of him.

That said, the absolute best of him is in my opinion very high. Perhaps if injuries give him a prolonged opportunity he might do enough to convince the coaches that he is worth not just accommodating but actually adapting to. I hope so, he is a good player and I think one who would make us stronger if he was allowed to shine.

Joe Piggott-Has obviously been a hero for Wimbledon and despite the fact he never really hit those heights this season, his place in club folklore is secure.

Still managed to pop up with a couple of vital goals despite obviously not being at his absolute peak,  should think over the Summer he will have a decision to make about where goes next, if indeed anywhere. He'll always be welcomed back at Plough Lane with open arms though, in many ways his football career and the way he rose through the grades mirrors and is entwined with that of the club.

Marcus Brown-Much vaunted upon arrival, you only had to see this lad play for ten minutes to see what all the fuss was about. Has a deftness of touch and an ability to take it on the half turn that was obviously way above and beyond league two level, we all expected great things.

From there though aside from one or two flashes of brilliance, Marcus plateaued a bit and it was hard to shake the feeling that as fans, we were only seeing about 50% of what he is capable of. Fortunately for him and us 50% of a player of his level is still plenty good enough for League Two, but if we can keep him (unlikely in my view but you never know) I am absolutely certain there is an "off the scale" talent for the level here.

Often though last season like a fella at the driving range who is trying to smash the cover off it with his Big Bertha, he'd screw shots wide when in the open. On dribbles he'd think too much, take one touch too many and too often they'd come to nothing. 

It felt like he was trying to impress during matches, play for his next contract rather than just trusting his talent and letting it flow. Wherever he ends up signing, once he's filled his signature in and is guaranteed two years employment, my guess is that team will have on their hands one hell of a player.

Aaron Sasu-Incredible when you see him to note that this kid is still only recently turned twenty years old. Six feet plus, shoulders on him like a hod carrier and quicker than a whippet chasing a squirrel. He's going to be physically an absolute monster within the next two years, and isn't going to get any slower either.

As far as last season goes, we saw everything from this lad apart from goals and assists. That everything included infuriatingly lethargic displays where you wanted to jump over the barriers and kick him up the arse, to moments of electrifying explosiveness which had you jumping off your seat. You never at this stage really know what you're going to get from him, I suppose that's one of the reasons why I think he's the most exciting player in the squad.

Talent wise I think this kid has absolutely everything. He can be physical and win headers (he's dramatically improved even in the last few weeks at that), he can see a pass and I think can finish. It's when the ball is on the ground though that the electricity begins to crackle. He is lightening fast and like a good racehorse, glides across the dirt without leaving footprints.

I think as soon as next season he could potentially be our "Main man", and if it clicks for him he'll scare the shite out of League One defenders. For it to click, he'll have to become much more nasty. I'm confident that it'll come, equally I'm sure that the coaches are working with him every day on where and when to run. Too often he goes where defenders would "like" him to be, as opposed to where it would make them very uncomfortable.

For me he's 100% a number 9. We must all remember however that he's just a kid, sit back and watch him grow. If it happens for him, I think he'll go for more money than Ali Al-Hamidi.

Tomorrow I'll do the coaching staff review.