Recruitment, the vote & where we are.

Sometimes when you run a pub you get to meet people that otherwise wouldn't come into your orbit. That can be a pain sometimes (as they themselves can be a pain in the arse) but on other occasions it's a privilege. I had one of those occurrences the other day & got chatting to somebody "involved in recruitment" at AFC Wimbledon, I don't want to be more specific as it would be betraying a confidence.

Now it's worth considering that this person isn't to the best of my knowledge involved in the DTB. It appeared to me that also they knew about as much about the intricacies of the proposal, the vote, the people involved etc as I do (the best part of bugger all). The good thing is though, they knew a lot about football which is handy if you're involved in recruitment.

Anyway over a pint they told me a little story which I thought I'd pass on. Now most Wimbledon fans I should think would agree with me on this (even if they think I talk bollocks about everything else) in that we could REALLY do with a pacy centre half. In the game the phrase they use is "He can get across the ground", same thing. Ideally you'd want one with league experience, proven, and if he was young enough to potentially have a sell on value all the better.

Well the good news is, we've found one! The player has been scouted by people who know far more about being a centre half than I ever will, and apparently we're convinced that this is the guy. Even better, he's out of contract! So why isn't he in the team then I hear you ask, and this is where the problems start.

No it's not wages. Apparently we've agreed that with the player and his agent, and nor obviously is it the transfer fee either. It isn't that he lives in Scotland & can't afford to move down south, none of that. No, the problem is that he's injured. Not broken leg/cruciate knee injured, but muscle injury 6-10 weeks injured. So what? I hear you ask, well here's the problem.

We can't afford to pay his wages until he gets fit, we have to wait until he IS fit before we can sign him. Read that again, I promise you that it's true. Now by not signing him, we save 16-20K. BUT, and this is why I'm being vague, obviously now we have to sweat that nobody else offers him a contract in the meantime. I'm absolutely sworn to secrecy as to who it is, simply for THAT reason.

Now it is my concrete opinion that we cannot long term compete in the football league if we are operating in this way. We are asking the manager to work with his hands tied behind his back, and the players to play under a severe disadvantage. It is in my humble opinion completely unsustainable.

Now the vote brings with it promises of funding. Not the promise of spending millions of pounds on players, but at least the prospect of not operating in the way we currently are. I've seen lots of doubting posts online, with people wanting to see things ranging from all twenty of the alternative proposals to wanting an investor to put a mountain of money in & wanting absolutely zero prospect of getting any of it back.

Now I said the other day that AFC Wimbledon are like a ship with a gaping hole in the side, anybody can see that we are going to sooner or later sink unless we do something. Fortunately for us, we elected a group of people to be "hole fixers uppers" & they've spent the last eighteen months working out what is in their opinion the best option. Now, we have a choice, or to my mind we have three choices.

1. Carry on as we are.

2. Debate the deal, vote it down, ask to see alternative proposals, spend another eighteen months completing due diligence on those.

3. Accept the deal which the board have negotiated.

Now I know bugger all about the ins and outs, but I am convinced that the first two options leave us (to use a technical term), fucked.

All just my opinion (apart from the centre half thing, that's fact).

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.

Aron Sasu-Is this his time?

I said on Twitter that in my brief time supporting Wimbledon NOBODY has come close to polarizing opinion like this kid. It probably wasn't accurate now I think about it. The word polarize suggests a 50/50 split, the truth is we're a long way from that. The ratio of people who have given up on him to those who still believe is probably closer to 95:5 in all honesty, and that is even after four goals in pre season.

The good news for Aron & no doubt his family is that within those 5% of believers, there are some that are absolutely adamant that the kid is a performance or two, a goal deflected in off his arse or two from exploding onto the scene. I used to be there myself, but these days although I recognize that his potential is massive (and in all honesty if you can't even recognize THAT after his first goal on Saturday then I have no hope for you), in order to reach anywhere near it (that potential) he is going to need to rapidly improve certain aspects of his game. For sure the pace is startling, the heading that goes with that brutal athletic ability is improving and will continue so to do, but in other aspects he needs to find a new level.

Just to be clear here I'm definitely NOT giving up on the kid. I STILL think he can be a player who is a country mile too good for League One and is potentially a massive transfer move waiting to happen, but unless he learns & does it quickly he'll end up not making it.

And what does he need to learn? Well the principle thing is how to move around a football pitch & when to do it. Far too often when he plays I'm left feeling that I could still do a reasonable job of marking him myself (I'm 60 next month). And let's put that into context, if this kid knew when and where to run then there isn't a centre half in the lower leagues who could live with him and I wouldn't have got within ten yards of him when I was 20. He'd literally be impossible to play against if he knew what he was doing, but as it is if you asked the defender what he would want Aron to do in an ideal world (for the defender), that's exactly what he does.

Even for the goals on Saturday, let's start with the first one. Before he gets the ball, he looks like a relay runner waiting for the baton. His body shape is all wrong, he's kind of jogging in a straight line away from the passer while looking over his shoulder. Yes when the ball gets to him the rest is poetry, and like I say if you can't see the potential in THAT then I'm afraid you are clueless, sorry to be rude but there it is. I know people will say "Yes but he's played 159 times" or whatever it is, but the simple fact of the matter is that for 99% of footballers, they could play 1000 times and not be able to do THAT.

For the second it's a good header, not lacking in bravery to nick in front of the keeper & fair enough. Again though, it's a STRAIGHT LINE run which has a massively low percentage chance of success. 

The simple fact of the matter with Aron is that if we and he can get into situations during games of L1 football where he gets the opportunity to go full throttle, he will create absolute mayhem. To do that though needs a bit of clever movement to open the door for a pass. For example I NEVER see him back peddling three paces to duck out of the line of sight of the defender. In a perfect world the defender wants to be able to see the attacker AND the ball at the same time, in the same frame. Duck out & instantly it's less comfortable, he has to feel for you or worse still, take his eyes off the ball to check where you are. Good strikers know that when he does THAT, the moment he looks back at the ball is your trigger to explode across the line. It only needs a simple poke between the lines from a midfield player from there & a Sasu at full pelt won't be caught by anybody in L1.

Similarly I don't ever see him check in short THEN back peddle away when the ball doesn't come before exploding into the space he's created for the next pass. Essentially his movement should be about going through the gears BEFORE the ball gets there wherever possible. Check in and get it short on the half turn if it DOES come, then go, take someone on (at pace), get a shot off.

And in the box, I don't see him attacking areas like a wardrobe falling down a flight of stairs. Gambling that it will come near post. I don't see him going near post then checking back out to the penalty spot (again out of line of sight). Sheesh if he did any of this stuff repeatedly over 90 minutes, with his ability, pace & physical presence he'd be a ridiculous player.

I've no doubt the guys at the club work with him on this stuff (unlike the other stuff that he has naturally, you can actually LEARN this shit) so why doesn't he do it? 

I so hope he gets it soon. If he ever wants to bob in the Alex for a coke zero I'll explain it to him myself. Whatever though, it would be an absolute crime if a kid with his talent & potential didn't make it. Fucking hell imagine Omar Bugiel or Matty Stevens with Arons pace, power, size & technical ability. Bugiel & Stevens would under those circumstances have made it to the Premier League.

Come on Aron, you can do it too 👊

NEVER beaten!

There was something in the air. A few of us were convinced that we could go to Wigan and win, but if you asked any of us know it alls "HOW though?", "Why?" you were met with a blank stare. Our losing run had let's be honest gone from some "Sheesh we were a bit unlucky there" games and descended fully into "We didn't just get beat, we got absolutely battered" mode. Nearly all of our talismanic players were either unavailable or at the very best "Willing to give it a go" despite being obviously unfit, and while we couldn't seem to buy a goal we were conceding chances aplenty. Goals against were coming from all angles too. Set pieces, open play, caught on the break, cut open, you name it. But, there was something in the air.

Myles Hippolite (God how we've missed him) was kind of back despite looking about as fit as many of us in the stands, Patrick Bauer hobbled and creaked onto the pitch looking like he'd just literally walked off a budget flight from Australia, and Ryan Johnson was there, as he always is. There and ready to battle for the cause with every last drop of sweat.

The actual game was a funny one. Wigan had nothing to play for other than their managers assurances to his former club that they'd "Get it done", but they seemed momentarily nonplussed by our "You can HAVE the ball if you want, we don't want it" style. To tell the truth they weren't on their own. For a long time while Exeter led at Burton it looked as if we were pragmatising ourselves into the relegation zone, and our fans urged the players to "Show more urgency", "Get a fucking tackle in", all that stuff. I must confess I did too, we didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

Gradually the home team took control without massively worrying us. At the back though Ryan Johnson, Patrick Bauer and Isaac Ogundere were magnificent. The latter should have those two old pros on his "Christmas cards for life" list, what an education it has been for him playing with the old stalwarts. They survived on know-how, doggedness and determination alone. Ryan & Patrick looked about as fit as me, and at sixty this year and with a few pints inside me I still think I might have been faster than both of em. I said to a lad that I was worried because we couldn't KEEP making these last gasp blocks. Fortunately for everyone though I'm often wrong and was here.

Skivvers meanwhile got sent off for booting the ball into outer space when they were trying to take a quick throw in, and somehow we protected our goal and clung on. Our goalie seemingly hadn't been told that when he was kicking it was the green bit in the middle of the two stands, the grassy area that he was aiming for, but it didn't matter any, we reached half time at 0-0.

The second half began and continued in much the same way. Callum Maycock was by now with his Duracell batteries outlasting those around him, Myles Hippolite won a couple of free kicks when somebody breathed on him aggressively and Ali Smith in his praying mantis style got his foot in. Tills and Seds began to venture forward occasionally, while up top Junior and Leyton Stewart ran around a lot, trying to make it look like we WOULD try and score at some point if Wigan weren't careful. Young Stewart is the most obvious Scouse footballer you'll see, all snarl, nip and bite, maximising his pain in the arseness to defenders.

True to form (and in all honesty what choice do we have?) we made some subs around the hour mark. Aaron Sasu jogged onto the pitch with his "I've just won a competition" nonchalance, Zak Nelson (more on him later) joined him, and Junior Hackford. In truth none of the three could point at any particularly sparkling recent performances, but by virtue of the fact that they can run and aren't actually injured, they were the obvious introductions.

The game meandered on, Burton (bless em) equalised and our heroic defence (which the whole team participated in) kept Wigan at bay. It was around this point that I said to my mate Ju "All it takes is one moment of magic"......

Cometh the hour and a half, cometh the man and the ball bobbled into the Aron Sasu sphere just outside their box. Now I'm not sure who has taken more stick for this lads performances, him, Johnny ("Sasu must have something on him") or me for bigging him up so much. All of us though have suffered as this kid has too often looked like a lost puppy in a Wimbledon shirt. In truth this performance up until then had been no different. He'd half jogged, half ran around a bit, jumped in the vague direction of headers and generally not really gotten involved much.

Here though, out of nowhere, something clicked. The rumoured "best player on the training pitch" suddenly decided to show it. There was a little drag back, a dip of the shoulder and a swerve which magnetised three defenders to him before a deft little release to a sprinting Zak Nelson. He was fouled on the moment of release but thankfully the ref played on. Zak pinged it across the six yard box and the world held it's breath. Loitering with disinterest on the penalty spot was Antoine Hackford. Now this kid has been ridiculously labelled with the dreaded "He doesn't care" tag (along with Sasu) but here like a leapord exploding out of the long grass on the Serengeti he glided across the turf to smash in the near post winner.

The away end descended into magnificent "Limbs" until we nervously realised we had to survive five minutes injury time. That left an opportunity for the magnificent Ryan Johnson in classic Peter Kay "AVE IT!" style to smash the ball into the opposite corner. Meanwhile Sasu no doubt buoyed by his game changing contribution took the ball and in a passage of play which looked from a distance like four spiders having a punch up in a kebab shop, won us a corner. The ref blew up and it was mayhem.

Johnny gave it the Jürgen Klopp "YEAH, YEAH, YEEEAAAAHHH" to the fans and as he put both hand on his head, there were probably tears in his eyes. There certainly was in mine.

There was still time for Zak Nelson's Mum to make a big impression on a few lads on the train back "He's got a hot Mum, he's got a hot MuuuUUUUM, Zaki Nelson, he's got a hot Mum!" was the chant they were trying to get going in the Alex.

What a day though, what a team. One for the ages. Thankyou to the players and management team. ❤️

Ryan Johnson is totally wrong.

Let me make this clear before big Ryan comes round the Alex and volleys me over Elys roof, I love him. He's my favourite senior player at the club and he's been an absolute hero for us since the day he signed. Where he's totally wrong though is in his "I can't make excuses for that performance" interview (the one against Plymouth). What?

Look, a couple of quick points here. Firstly, big Ryan Johnson hasn't got to make excuses for ANYTHING in my book. He's playing while not fully fit and as always, he's giving 100% for the badge as a bear minimum. Second, if we WERE to look for "excuses" let's be honest here there's plenty of them. Half of our first choice eleven has been ripped out through injuries, those that are left standing are knackered and as luck would have it, we've just ran into three excellent teams in our last three home games. All three of those teams were going all out for the playoffs and all three have budgets which make ours look like chump change. Meanwhile we're playing with either untested, unproven and/or unfit players up top, while they're bringing the likes of Ali Al-Hamadi and Bim Pepple off the bench.

So don't tell me there are "No excuses", please don't. It's actually a monumental effort that we arrive where we are with two games to play, but we have plenty of excuses for being on a poor run right now, let's get that bit straight first.

The bit where folks who say "Forget the excuses FFS" are spot on, is that right now they don't matter much. We cannot change what has happened in the previous 44 matches or indeed why it happened, the only thing we can influence as a club is what happens in our next two. It obviously follows that we can't influence how Exeter, Orient etc get on, so no point wasting time worrying about it. What we DO know is that if we win our last two games we definitely stay up. Win one of them and we almost certainly do.

So let's have a look at that. First let's state an absolute cast-iron fact. If you'd have said to ANY Wimbledon fan pre season that we'd be outside the relegation zone with two games to play, it wouldn't have been your arms you would be worrying about. The simple truth is that any Wimbledon fan with a clue would have eaten you whole like a rainforest cannibal, never mind any of that "arm at the elbow" stuff. And that hasn't happened by accident either. It's the result of some heroic performances from the players and some deft coaching, the highpoint of which was obviously the pivot from attritional football to full on gung ho "Ossie Ardiles" mode. Had our players stayed fit in sufficient number, that switch would have seen us comfortably safe, but they didn't and we aren't.

So we arrive at this point. Two games to go, away at Wigan and at home to Huddersfield. The good news is that NEITHER have got anything to play for. We will arrive at both games significantly more motivated than our opponent, and in football that's a big thing. Second positive, I've a hunch that our best player (Marcus Browne) will play. He obviously makes a huge difference, and it's very likely that if he DOES feature he'll score a goal in at least one of the matches. The third bonus is us, the fans. Now I heard some boos after the Plymouth game, and I would absolutely URGE those folks to look at themselves in the mirror. Before any of us talk nonsense about the players "Not trying" or the manager not "Having a clue", how about asking ourselves how much of a difference we as fans are making. Are WE giving OUR all? Don't think it makes a difference to the players? Well you've never played football before then.

So we go to Wigan on Saturday, and I know we'll be travelling in big numbers. Whoever is fit enough to walk onto the pitch in a Wimbledon shirt needs to know that there'll be no groans for misplaced passes, no cries of anguish at skied shots. They need to know that the supporters are with them for every yard that they run, every tackle they make, every header that they win.

And make no mistakes. We've GOT PLENTY of excuses but if the whole club sticks together we won't need them. We WILL get a result, and we WILL stay up. COYD

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

I was a bit disappointed when I got back to the pub last night if I'm honest. Not with the football match (how could you be disappointed in that?) but with the reaction of some of our fans online. After a magnificent match which was full of excitement and incident, the fact that we had come out on the wrong side of a six goal thriller meant either that some players should never wear our shirt again, the manager is an idiot or a combination of the two.

Supposedly we are to ignore how excellent we were in the first half? We're supposed to discount the fact that we've completely turned our season around with these gung-ho tactics, and we have to ignore the obvious point that in Dom Ballard Orient are lucky enough to have a striker who is at the very least one of the best at the level and more probably too good for it?

I'm sorry this "Yeah but, ignore that bit" stuff doesn't really work for me. Playing like we are requires bravery. It can't happen if the manager isn't brave, the players need to be super brave to keep bombing forward, and the fans need to be brave too. Bravery in this context means accepting the fact that if your first obsession is no longer about defensive shape, sprinting to get back behind the ball and not over committing forward, you ARE going to concede more chances. Not only that, but when you run into a striker as good as Ballard is, you're likely going to concede more goals too. We got outscored yesterday, it'll happen sometimes, but give me THAT game over an hour and a half of arm wrestling and a 0-0 draw any day of the week. If you REALLY try to win, you have to be less afraid of losing. That's where we are, enjoy the ride.

Some thoughts after the Northampton game.

The crowd.

I hear a lot of people talking about why they boycott this competition. You can't help but hear it, they bang on about it continuously. Quite why they feel the need to do that rather than simply not turn up is a constant mystery to me (much like people who "don't do" MK away), but both teams were well supported last night and both sets of fans got behind their teams. It felt like a proper game and so it should, it was two steps from Wembley.

On this point I'm not saying folks should or shouldn't go, it's up to them. But I don't need to know every five minutes what their reasons are.

Our performance

Johnny looked pretty angry after the game, particularly with the first half performance. I didn't think we were great there myself, and aside from bits of Junior NKeng inspired excitement there wasn't too much going on.

The manager alluded to the team not looking the same as it had in the last two and a half games and it was hard to argue. The most significant and obvious difference was in midfield, we very obviously lacked the drive and running power which has made us look a much better team. Added to that the captains natural "sitting" point is a good ten paces deeper than that of Ali Smith. The result of that is firstly that we aren't able to put anywhere near as much pressure on the football in the centre circle, and our passing becomes stilted because Jake is standing next to the centre backs rather than in front of them.

In fairness to "Skip" he did play our best pass of the game into NKeng for our goal, but my suspicion is that if he IS going to get back into the team he is going to have to adapt to the fact we need him 15 yards further up the pitch. The danger from there is one of mobility and the likelihood that he would get exposed for pace. It's precisely because of this and the fact that he can read that danger that he sits so deep in the first place. It's a proper conundrum that one.

Jake is an excellent footballer though who always gives 100% whatever the situation. He reads the game like a book and is no doubt fully aware that if we go back to a more "wait & see" style, he has a much bigger opportunity to get regular minutes. That or he'll come back as a Franz Beckenbauer sweeper or something.

Patrick Bauer

I do wish football fans would be a bit more understanding and think twice before they call players "Shit" online. Patrick will know last night wasn't his career highlight, but nor was he "shit" either. For the first goal he would have gotten the alarm bells even quicker than the fans that have a clue did once he was left one on one with the centre forward. That's a team failure though that he was left like that, he's there to head it not be Virgil Van Dyke. If he had his time again he'd show the fella onto his left rather than letting him come inside and hit it, but it was a good finish in fairness.

Before the second he might have broken his nose a couple of minutes earlier when the ball hit him on the underside of it. I don't know if he did as I'm not in touch with the medical team, but even if he didn't I can tell you that is unbelievably painful. His eyes will have been streaming like a little kid, and moments later they scored. He isn't the first centre half to get out muscled by Tom Eaves, but it's the moment he froze and didn't follow him in which will sting the most. ALL centre halves make mistakes though, it doesn't mean they are shit in my opinion and definitely doesn't mean they deserve disrespect. This lad has been a great pro, still is, and though his powers may have finished a bit he is still giving it 100%.

Junior NKeng.

Any Wimbledon fans who haven't seen him yet, you'd better come down to Plough Lane soon. My guess is we are going to fielding multiple offers for this lad in the Summer and he'll be off. Given that, we may as well guess at the price.

I'll go first, my STARTING point (I wouldn't answer the phone for less) would be £800K & a 20% sell on clause. We'll have to take a lot less than that if there's only one club in for him, but there won't be. I think even a Bournemouth or an Everton might take a punt at a million quid then loan him out. Players that can beat people & excite fans are worth their weight in gold, and this kid will obviously get MILES better. Reminds me of that Rio Ngoma kid at Liverpool.

Matty Stevens

I thought he had his best game since he came back from injury and capped it off with a typical Matty Stevens goal. The difficulty for him is that in our new style Marcus Brown (if he is to remain up front) and Omar Bugiel as good as pick themselves. Our most natural finisher is going to have to wait for his chance then take it when it comes, but that's his game.

Callum Maycock.

Thank God Johnnie took him off last night. Not because he wasn't playing well, but because he has morphed into a vital part of our midfield and we need him on Saturday. Our only midfielder that consistently gets ahead of the ball and our only one with Duracell endurance. I hope he realises it (I'm still not sure he does) but right now he is surely one of the first names on the team sheet.

Joe Lewis.

Cannot catch a break for love nor money. One of our very best players when fit, right now he just can't seem to get there. I hope this ones not too serious, we need him and he's nearing the end of his contract. My guess is at that point he'll be offski, but beating the injuries works for everyone. We get a brilliant defender & an inspirational leader, Joe gets a good deal wherever he goes because he's proved he can stay fit.

What a difference a week makes!

THAT'S my kind of football!

First thing to say about today is that it was a magnificent game of football. The woman in the high rise flats could have been trying on her swimsuit collection never mind displaying her freshly bought garden furniture, you couldn't take your eyes off this one and I didn't, not for a second. Chaotic, end to end, loads of chances for both teams and five goals. It was lovely to win it, but even at two two in our section of the ground everyone was loving it. Give me this over a "hard earned clean sheet" any day of the week.

We forget at our peril that professional football is part of the entertainment industry. This was the most entertaining game of the season by a billion miles, I loved it. And we are FAR BETTER in my opinion when the game is fast paced and chaotic like this one.

Johnnie Jackson

Often maligned for being "too safe" or "too predictable", the manager deserves huge credit for so radically changing our style of play and getting it working in the space of only a few days. Now pressing much higher, committing far more men forward and defending with a much higher line, gone is the desire to be risk averse and the players are positively embracing the new approach.

When you add in the extremely brave move to bench the skipper and our most natural goalscorer, you have a man who is really going for it. Mixed in with all that are some very shrewd tactical tweaks. The most obvious one today was detailing Callum Maycock to man mark Lewis Wing in the second half (Ali Smith when Callum went off). It completely blunted Reading as an attacking force and changed the course of the game. Well done Johnnie 👏

James Tilley

How good as he been since he came back? Another superb display, making it three inside a week. Wycombe must be watching him and thinking WTAF? He has totally transformed us with what he brings to the team, solid defensively and with some real cut going forward.

Until he scores (it looks around the corner to me) I'm going to back him every game TO score at any time. I'd strongly advise anybody reading this to do the same. Take it as payback for having to endure my drivel.

Callum Maycock

I might be totally wrong on this, but my impression is that Callum has had imposter syndrome since coming to us. It took him a while (it looked to me) to really believe he was good enough for League two, he's done the same with League One. I for one though think he's a fine player, combining Duracel up and down running with moments of real quality. I thought he was absolutely magnificent today, his metronomic movement setting the pulse for a great display from the team.

I hope he himself is now convinced. He's a league one player alright and one who in my opinion gets into our best team. His marking job on Lewis Wing today turned the course of the game on its head.

Marcus Brown.

Wow. I'm not just talking about the goals either, he was brilliant on and off the ball. I must admit I felt a bit sorry for Callum Maycock. He has by far his best game in a Wimbledon shirt & our best player scores a hat-trick to deny him the MOM accolade 😂.

My one criticism of Marcus today was when he told Junior NKeng to pass it backwards in the first half rather than take his man on. It's a judgement call and a matter of opinion, but I'd be telling kid to just go for it again and again. Then again.

Marcus Brown though. In this form he looks like what he is, a Championship player playing in League One.

Three or four more wins and we can relax. A fantastic week, COYD 👊

A win! Some thoughts on last night's victory at Port Vale.

Ryan Johnson.

Football is all about players. You don't win if they don't play well, you lose if they don't. The fella in the picture above has never had a better game in a Wimbledon shirt arguably since the 3-0 away win at Sutton. He was absolutely magnificent, a colossus at the back and the foundation upon which our performance was built. Obviously MOM, at his best he is some defender.

James Tilley.

There were many groans and "Let the greedy bugger lie in his bed" posts when he returned (wrongly, how many fans would turn down a huge pay rise at THEIR work) but they've gone quiet now. I live in hope that he'll rebuild the trust he had with the fans not because of his departure but because of him having a go at them after a defeat, but anyway. All that aside, he is an excellent footballer who has instantly made us a better team. He's very rare at this level in that he can go both ways and hit it off both sides, he was excellent against Bolton and just as good last night. I don't like the attempt at a tash overly, but such is my total uncoolness my guess is that probably makes the young fella like it even more. We are very lucky to have him back, and the decision to make the deal was an excellent one by whoever made it.

One last thing on James. That was a bad tackle by him in the first half, I thought he was a little lucky. There are many reasons Port Vale are bottom, one of them is that they aren't co-ordinated on the pitch. Had they collectively gone berserk, surrounded the ref & whipped the crowd up, our man might have been in big trouble.

Marcus Brown.

There were moments, with Marcus there always is. Our best player played one pass to the new lad which was absolutely magnificent, he is the only player we have that can do stuff like that. It should have led to a penalty (more on that later) and I thought Marcus had a solid game. I'm not sure I like him though off the front man, I think we waste him a bit in there. As a 10 behind a front two would be my spot for him, like a kind of Florian Wertz at Liverpool role.

The referee.

I suppose I could just about forgive him for not giving the foul on the new lad from Marcus's pass. You needed a couple of angles on that one to confirm that in the tangle of legs there was an obvious foul committed and it was therefore a definite penalty. The direction the ball went after the foul suggested the defender might have played the ball (he didn't), so without any help from his linesman I can forgive that one. The Junior NKeng one though? Fucking hell you don't get much more clear cut than that. It's right in front of him and anyone who has played football can see it coming a mile off. THAT was even a penalty when I played, to not give it was an astonishing decision. Anyone who has the misfortune to have read my stuff before will know I'm definitely not a one-eyed fan who is biased towards us all of the time. Usually when everyone shouts "It's a pen ref!!!" I'm going "Nah not for me". Not here though, they were BOTH penalties and to NOT give the first was an awful decision.

Our playing style.

Johnnie and the coaches deserve huge credit for taking the second half of the Bolton game and running with it here. Gone were the endless attempts to slow the game down, there were some much quicker throw ins, the keeper released it early and there were even a couple of quick free kicks (mostly from Ali Smith who was also very good). We pressed high and were very unlucky to not get a reward a couple of times, and we committed bodies forward. Most pleasing was that even with just a few minutes left, we still got forward in numbers. We didn't take the "good point" at a "tough place to come", we went for the win. In short we were brave, and in the end we got our rewards with a great goal and three points.

Johnnie Jackson.

Has been accused plenty recently of having his favourites, seemingly undroppable players who seemingly get the nod regardless of performance. Last night's selection will have pleased those who were saying it, and no doubt there'll be plenty of "I told ya FFS" sprinkled around this morning. Some of the calls are big though, selecting an 18-y-o who hasn't as of yet provided much end product, dropping the captain, playing Seddon as one of a three, dropping our most natural finisher etc etc. These are BIG calls and the manager deserves credit for making them. Like pretty much all of us, he's better when he just goes "Fuck it" and shoves all his chips in the middle.

The travelling fans 

I didn't go, watched it on the SKY plus. All you could hear was our fans, I thought we must have taken 800 or something. Then the camera panned over to them and there were less than half that. No wonder either, it was a magnificent effort to get up there. To generate THAT much noise though? Wow. Sometimes clubs refund tickets when they play shite and get battered away, here they should send them all a catering pack of Strepsils! There won't be many in that away end who'll be able to sing opera this morning.

A brilliant night. The players are off today, well deserved.

One last thing.

The new striker. Give him a chance, he actually played in the first team for Liverpool at Anfield. He ain't gonna be no mug, see the lad play before you give up on him.

AFC Wimbledon. Where we are, my two penneth worth.

I listened to the Wombles had a dream podcast just now, it was brilliant. It always was brilliant, but for a few months I've kind of checked out of football a bit and I left it (listening). I've still been going to games, even gone to a few away trips, but I've had real trouble getting as "Up for it" as I normally do. That's not a criticism of Johnnie, Skivvers, the players or anything, it's football in general. Someone offered me a pair of free tickets to go see England at Wembley a while back, it took me about five seconds to politely decline. The five seconds were spent thinking of an excuse, not on making a decision. Anyway for some unknown reason I can feel it coming back, listening to the podcast this morning definitely helped, thankyou.

So anyway my thoughts, in no order at all.

Things aren't quite as bad as they look.

Don't worry I'm not going to get all happy clappy on you, of course we're playing shite I'm not blind. The GOOD news is though that if you'd shown any sensible Wimbledon fan a picture of this league table before a ball was kicked, they'd have bitten your arm off at the elbow. Sure it would have felt better if we'd kind of picked up points consistently rather than all at the start then none for ages, but beggars can't be choosers. Equally it'd be better if we were playing better and banging goals in left right and centre, but we are where we are.

Whichever way you cut it however, from here we have a great chance of staying up. My guess is that it will be close (in my judgement we are currently the worst team in the league on form), but we have given ourselves a huge chance. We don't from here need to win every week, we just need to win SOMETIMES and draw a few. That would be plenty good enough, so as much as you can keep your chin up. BTW on that subject Port Vale isn't even close to being the "Must Win" that people say it is. It's not even a "Must not lose". Port Vale are in contrast to us already down, losing three points to THEM is just three points. We obviously though are very capable of winning the game, we should go absolutely all out to do just that. No sitting in for a draw, get after them and win.

Marcus Brown.

Our best player by a fair distance and yet still we as fans are seemingly. underwhelmed. He as a player looks like  he feels like he underachieves. Nine goals this season (without which we'd be fucked) and using the age old barometer ALL of which in the league were on the road, ought to have the fans singing his name. And yet, and yet.

So what is it with Marcus? Well firstly to repeat myself, he is by far our best player, it isn't even close. I must admit though that I myself don't "love" him, and why is that? Firstly stating the obvious is because despite his output, it's as plain as the hooter on my face that he's obviously capable of much more. He is probably a Championship player in terms of ability, but we don't quite get it.

Now if Marcus was silly enough to read this, he'd no doubt say "Hang on silly bollocks what do you want FFS? I'm the top scorer in the team and without me you'd be fucked". He'd be right too, so what DO I want (silly bollocks)? 

Well, I think the best player in the team has a duty to lift the other players, to make THEM play better. I think he has a responsibility to get outside of his own headspace and get into theirs. I think he has the onus upon him to be the beating heart of the team, in much the same way as Maradona was for Napoli & Argentina. See there's no such thing as a one man team, but there IS such a thing as a team which is miles better because of one man. Marcus is out best player, he knows it and the other players know it too. That warrior who is leading the forces to heights they didn't realise they could reach role is vacant in our team, and it's vacant because only HE can do it. The other players need him.

And in a nutshell how do you coach that? Well if Marcus imagines he's 34 years old while he's playing that'd be a start. He's talented enough to still play league One at that age, and what would he do if he did? Well he'd drop in, get it, give it, rinse and repeat. He'd be doing little no look reverse passes, sliding people in down little corridors. When the opportunity came to have a shot, he'd keep his head down and keep his technique solid. He wouldn't snatch at it and screw it wide like the young players do and he does now. He'd be putting his arm around the refs shoulders and cajoling him, not screaming in his face like the young players do and he does now.

In short he'd be taking responsibility. He wouldn't be a one man team because there's no such thing. But he'd be playing for a team which is much better when he is in it. My guess is the fans would love him too, THAT'S the Marcus Brown that Id love to see.

Another loss, but perhaps a glimmer of hope?

After the 1-0 defeat to an admittedly excellent Bolton team, Johnnie was slightly hyperbolic in his assessments but that's OK, he's supposed to keep everyone's pecker up. Sure saying it was a game of two halves was stretching it a bit (aside from the obvious fact that it literally always is), as was saying we dominated the second half. We didn't actually have any shots on target during that period, but while "dominated" might be a bit OTT, it WAS the best we've played for months in my opinion.

How did it happen and why did it happen? Well firstly there was a shrewd half time switch of James Tilley by the manager. I thought our tail between his legs returnee was comfortably our best player on the day, and it made perfect sense to put him up against their most dangerous attacker.

The management team deserve lots of credit for that decision. It was a huge call, and while it's nice that numpties like me applaud it in hindsight, we'd have been the first to call it "Madness" if it had gone wrong. And James Tilley deserves huge credit too. He slightly went down in my estimation when he told some of our younger fans to Fuck Off, but there is no doubt that he is a quality footballer. God only knows how he couldn't get a game at Wycombe.

Another big call was the introduction of Junior NKeng at half-time. It's obvious when you watch this kid that he is way off the finished article and has a huge amount to learn. BUT, he is a classic example of the "Let's talk about what he CAN do rather than what he can't". The excellent Plough Lane by numbers posted up that we had 10 successful dribbles in the whole match, eight of which were this kid in the second half. Now when you are talking "impact" you can't get much better than that, and I counted FOUR free kicks he won on the edge of their box. The obvious caveat with this kid is that if you sneak him into the team at wingback, now teams are getting to know about him they'll target his side, push him back and ask him to defend. The best way to deal with natural dribblers like Junior NKeng is to keep him in his own half, sooner or later we'll be forced into playing him left midfield or not at all.

More important than all of those changes though was the fact that in the second half we changed the way we were playing. I'd summarise it in saying we introduced energy, high press and tempo into our game. Instantly the game became more chaotic and I've long been 100% convinced that we are a far better team under those circumstances. Of course when you press high you carry the risk of being played through or over. You are far less compact, your shape can get pulled all over the place and you are by definition more vulnerable. That said, you by definition become more uncomfortable to play against, opposition players have less time and you have the opportunity to nick the ball high up. Players far better than the ones we run into in league one don't like being pressed, and we did it excellently.

Tempo is another thing. I've long said that if we ARE going to continuosly launch it (and let's face it, we are) then can't we just get on and do it already? There's no need to fart around rolling it sideways for two minutes before we hit it long, if we're going to do it then get on with it. Similarly if we get a throw in, a corner, a free kick or a goal kick, GET ON WITH IT! There is no gain for us in slowing the game down, in the second half we did it far less and looked better for it.

So no it didn't get us a result nor a shot on target, but Omar really ought to have scored and Steve Seddon very nearly did. The difference against a team who frankly could have been out of sight in the first half was significant.

So for me I hope we've learnt something. The answer if you can't score a goal is not to assume you're not going to score one & defend like crazy for a 0-0. No, the answer is to gamble, to take a risk, to apply all of your efforts into scoring. I think we need to press high, from minute one. To do that though you need players with energy who can get about the pitch. Those that can't need to sit down for a while. N'Keng obviously needs to start and we obviously need to get the ball to him whenever we can. We oughtn't either to over complicate what we're asking him to do, "Get it and go at em" would do the trick. He is the first player since Ayoub Assal to get the fans off their seats. 

In short we need to gamble, to push all in. We are losing every week playing conservatively, we can't do any worse if we go for it.