Time for a bit of a reset? How to set about Mansfield.

After we'd spent the whole of December telling each other that January was "going to be brutal", the fact that we've been proven right so far oughtn't to alarm anyone. There were though some worrying aspects creeping in against MK, and like most fans I should think found it a much tougher watch than the defeat at Wrexham.

I described the first half at Wrexham as just about the best I'd seen us play under Johnnie Jackson. High praise indeed, but given the circumstances I thought we were superb. Yes we were eventually ran out of it, but given the available players we could take much from the defeat.

So why was MK so different? Particularly as we still had no Ali, no Omar etc? Well the glaringly obvious difference was that our trip to Wales saw us play with a clear mindset, an obvious method which all of the players bought into. It was fairly obvious for example that we'd have taken a 0-0 draw there if it was offered. We sought to contain, frustrate, pick our moments to press and then see if we could nick something. Had Josh buried his chance it may have worked, but in any case against a very good team we applied ourselves with credit, only going down narrowly.

Unfortunately against MK for whatever reason we got distinctly muddled. It was far less obvious to these eyes anyway what our actual plan was, the players too were left looking confused at times. We seemed unsure whether to press effectively in numbers or to just drop off and contain. Standing mid court in tennis never works, and in pretty much all sport you need to commit within the contest to either defending, containing or attacking at a given moment. Confused dot com is no way to play football, and us leaving the back five in situ but pressing their ten players with our other six (they left one up top) was always doomed to fail. Johnnie Jackson is in my view a much improved manager this season, if he's as good as I think he is he'll already have worked out that we got this one totally wrong.

Fortunately for us there are only three teams in our league which play the extreme possession style favoured by MK & Notts County. Unfortunately our next opponents (Mansfield) are the other, and they are certainly the best team of the three. In Aden Flint they have probably the best centre half in the league, and in Davis Keilor-Dunne one of its best players. If we play in such a befuddled fashion as we did against MK, we will be beaten more heavily than the 3-1 inflicted upon us last night.

So it is time in my view for a reset. We need a root and branch look at it from the players and the management, how are we going to play? Either we're going to let them have the ball in their half, or we aren't. If it's the former we drop off, if it's the latter we press properly, with bravery and in numbers.

Now it's always safer to drop off in the sense you are harder to play around, but you do become very passive. Equally, as Ali isn't around it's not easy for us to build and create chances, we are better in transition. So if it was me, I'd be up for getting MUCH bolder with the press. My guess is that we are going to have to score AT LEAST once in order to get anything from the game, so we may as well get onto the front foot.

That means nudging the full backs on into midfield at opportune moments, going man for man when their goalie has it, commiting Reeves and Little into the press as well etc. It's a risky strategy, but at least it's a clear one which everyone can understand. We'll avoid those "everyone looking at each other not knowing whether to stick or twist" moments we had last night, and we'll be far more dangerous.

A quick word to the fans too. These are a REALLY good team. If we do get beat, it's not the end of the World as we know it to quote Michael Stype. What it is, is the end of a really tricky January, and if we win this game then three points out of nine will be not too bad at all.

COYD

My Match Report: Milton Keynes v AFC Wimbledon.

Sometimes you get out of bed and on the way to the carsey you tread on an earring your daughter has left on the bathroom floor. You howl in agony and as you try to hop and grab the punctured foot at the same time, you trip over the cat and fall in the bath. Inevitably you grab at a shelf on the way down. Equally predictably it's not designed to hold you up and you rip it off the wall, sending it's contents spiralling to the tiles. Everything that could go wrong does go wrong, sometimes in life it happens.

Course, you could stomp up the stairs and have a go at the daughter for not being more careful, you could if you can catch it kick the cat, you could use thicker wall plugs when putting shelves up. The reality is though that none of these things will help, sometimes you just gotta accept that it wasn't your day.

So you know where I'm going with this. As a football club, be it the fanbase, the management team or the players, knowing what to do when you have one of "those" days is vital. I'll tell you what you do, nothing. You don't panic. You don't conclude that the players "don't care", that they "don't get it" or that the manager is a mug. You analyse, you study, you improve, and next time you come up against the same opponent you do better.

So emotion aside for a second, here are my thoughts. The players DO care (of course they do FFS), so do the management team. I would argue that in this particular fixture they care way too much. We allow ourselves as a club to let our obvious desire to win the game cloud our judgement as to how to best achieve that outcome. We do it every time, hopefully this is the last one. MK are a decent team with some good players, but anywhere near our best we would see them off in my opinion more often than not. In order to do that though we have to calm down, be way more clinical.

The way MK play these days under Mike Williamson makes even the Liam Manning version look like a route one team. Next time, we are going to have to press the football much more effectively. We need to be braver, you can't press in ones and twos. We were nowhere near so effective here as we were against Notts County, in their desire to get stuck in our players were either freezing or being too reckless and going alone.

I can't think of a better example of us wanting it too much than James Tilleys miss on the stroke of half time. He scores that and it's a different game, he thinks that only he knows how he missed it. He's wrong, I know how he missed it too. He tried too hard to make sure, rather than just larraping it into the net like he normally would.

We've got to defend much better. Hus Biler was as bad as I've ever seen him and was a shoo in red card. I'm not giving up on the kid after one poor game, no way. Jack Currie has been much better than he was tonight, and while PK can count himself a tad unlucky he did get wrong side for his red card. Ryan Johnson was as hesitant as he was unlucky for the second goal, only the goalkeeper and Joe Lewis were anywhere near it on the day.

Up top Aaron Sasu continues to shimmer like a speck of gold in the middle of a babbling brook, while new signing John Kymani-Gordon had a fine debut. The rest of the lads will know that they have played better. No doubt the management team have coached and set up better too, but NONE of them failed for lack of effort. It's not time for recriminations, it's time for support. We lick our wounds, we take it on the chin, and we make sure that the next time we do much better.

I think we will. COYD.

My Match Report: Wrexham v AFC Wimbledon

Some defeats feel almost like wins when you consider the vital phenomenon of potential momentum. Yesterday's was a case in point, I and many other Wimbledon fans feared we might get absolutely battered in Wales, this was a country mile away from that.

Not only did we "keep it respectable" as far as the scoeline goes, despite our ravaged ranks (We had a fella on the bench who I'd LITERALLY never heard of) but on another day, we might have won. Considering the circumstances, the first half was as well as I've seen us play under Johnnie Jackson. We were much the better team, Aaron Sasu terrorised the right back and hit the bar, while big James Ball will probably think he might have done better with a header that scraped the woodwork. At the other end, Ryan and Joe practised headers as some bloke lobbed throws into our area. 

We were dominant. James Tilley came back and had that sparkle in his eye again, while James Ball plucked the splinters out of his arse and unfurled himself to great effect. He almost scored but equally as notably sat on the toes of George Evans, their influencial schemer in the middle. Josh Davison didn't just lead the line he WAS the line, but if ever you need someone to run around a lot and chase everything, there's nobody better that our recently shorn bustler.

Into the second half and they improved. They could scarcely have gotten worse, we had made them look awful in the first half. 

Then came our moment. Josh forced himself through their line and bore down on goal like a Labrador chasing one of those bouncy sponge ball things. The ground held it's breath, Josh steadied himself, the totemic figure of Arthur Onkonkwe (or whatever his name is) spread himself to block out the sun, and Josh pulled it six inches wide. That's what happens sometimes when you go for the corner when running at full speed, sometimes you miss. Course, he could have just blasted it into the midriff of the goalie to satisfy the "You've got to hit the target!" merchants, but he didn't. Watch football at any level though, and strikers miss chances. It happens, it's happened to Ali and this time it happened to Josh. That doesn't change my opinion that our striker was brilliant on the day.

From there, much like when Ethan Chislett broke a floodlight when in on goal against Orient last year, you kind of sensed it wasn't going to be out day. As Wrexham brought on subs who are on more money than our highest earners, we looked at our bench and understandably under these circumstances decided to stick. Eventually we ran out of gas and they scored twice, one of them a lucky ricochet, the other as a result of a good block from a well taken corner.

They knew they'd been in a proper game though. They knew that even without our star man we had more than matched them. We were excellent, the lads and the management team can be proud of their efforts. I certainly was anyway.

Joe Lewis-A MASSIVE signing for the Dons.

Often when a player first joins a club, particularly if it's one the fans aren't previously aware of, it's interesting to track opinion as time goes on. When Joe Lewis first arrived on loan from Stockport, all anyone talked about was the shorts. "He's a decent player this new fella, but what's the effing score with the shorts?" was the talk of the early away trips. These was a probably a wee bit of resentment and jealousy from the lads too, all the girls loved him.

Gradually though, people began to see past the shorts (well most did anyway 😂) and we began to collectively realise that what we had here was a proper footballer. This is a fella who wins headers, has pace across the ground and is as strong as a bull. He actually doesn't need that "look at how big my muscles are" stance that he has in my photo 😂, he is all core strength. Great technique too, gets his legs set and then just wrestles whoever it is he is up against our of the way.

I'm told that off the pitch Joe isn't as big as he looks on it, when he helped out at DLAG they loved him but commented on how "normal" he looks, quietly spoken too. The fact he isn't quite so imposing in "real life" is unsurprising really, he represents an absolutely mountainous presence on the grass. I once met John Terry and felt exactly the same as those who met Joe, the player and the man is much bigger in stature and presence than in actual height.

There's more though isn't there? It isn't just that Joe Lewis is a very good football player, everyone knows that. It isn't just that he's one of the best centre halves in League Two, that's pretty obvious also. It isn't even that because of his pace, because of his sprinkling of star quality that he could play a level or two higher, no there's more to it than that. 

It's Joe Lewis, the man. Like a Jack Reacher on the football pitch, Joe is the fella that embodies what every bloke watching would like to be. He has the looks, the talent but not just that, he has the heart of a lion that every team needs at its core. Jack Reacher irons people out and gets all the girls, no doubt so does Joe Lewis.

I think he's a brilliant footballer, and crucially he GETS us. I totally understand why the wonderful John Green dug down the back of the sofa to find some spare sheckles to stick in the pot (Top man John BTW ❤️), he did it because Joe Lewis embodies what AFC Wimbledon is all about. The fans absolutely love this lad, he gives 100% in every minute of every game.

Joe Lewis is a certain future captain if he stays long enough, his signing has absolutely made my January. Welcome permanently Joe, and well done to Johnnie, Skivvers, Rob, Craig & Bayzo for convincing you that this was the place. 

Now I can stop pretending to Stockport fans that Joe is rubbish. The truth is, he is flippin brilliant 👏👏. 

Match Report (Written by Milly Dore), AFC Wimbledon v Oxford United.

While I do have a slight soft spot for Oxford United because of it being where I attend university, all pleasantries went out of the window as soon as they entered the pitch. I was 100% behind JJ’s (or Skivver’s in this case) men to sail us safely through to the next round. 

I know a lot of people are not fans of this particular tournament, but I feel as though now a trip to Wembley is on the cards we should put the discrepancies aside and get behind the boys, if not for the fact we want them to progress, but simply due to the cash it can potentially bring in.

I must say it made me very happy to see some regular starters from last season that have fallen slightly down the pecking order this season. Much like coming home from Uni and meeting all of my home friends for a drink in Spoons, it was great to see the likes of Paul, Nik, and even though he hasn't been here for long it feels like a LIFETIME since I last saw him play, James Ball. Paul Kalambayi was back to his usual “kick anything that moves”' strategy and it was wonderful to see him grace Plough Lane with his presence again for a full 90 minutes. While he may not have the technical ability of the centre backs that the Oxford forwards are used to playing against, he makes up for that in hardwork and physicality, and it took a bit of getting used to for the Oxford men. When Nik Tsanev made that double save in the first half, I had to remind myself that Allison Becker had not got lost on M6 and ended up playing for us in the BSM trophy, but it was in fact our very own Nik!! He looked confident and assured, and it made me very happy to see him on such good form last night. Then James Ball had a fabulously taken shot from outside the area, and I think even the Oxford keeper was surprised it didn't go in.

Another one who was excellent yesterday was James Tilley. I saw flashes of the Colchester away and Sutton away versions of the Tillmeister and he was back to his early season form. He is so tricky to defend against and while Omar and Ali are off doing their thing in the Asia cup, Tilley is one of our main sources of goal threat. He has to start for the next few games. Harry Pell was back to his usual football with a side of theatre yesterday. He strategically flung himself around the pitch, eventually being rewarded with getting the Oxford keeper sent off. The Oxford players all stood around waiting for the reserve keeper to get his chance but then the reality dawned on them: they had made all of their substitutions! Unfortunately for Oxford, the team they had ended up with at this moment was slightly vertically challenged, with none of the team being tall enough to be a fully functioning keeper for the last ten minutes. As they were all staring at each other bordering on doing a game of rock paper scissors to decide who was going in goal, Oxford’s number 14 ‘Oisin Smyth’, a northern Irish midfielder took one for the team and swapped his usual shirt for bright green and went between the sticks. We had such an opportunity to go 3-0 up here. Although the free kick was about 5 yards further out than we would have hoped for, we had a midfielder in goal, it was obvious we needed to have a shot. As if in slow motion Jake Reeves raised his arms above his head and... passed it to Tilley and then Oxford got the ball. It was the comedic moment of the game, and bless him I think I genuinely saw Smyth take a sigh of relief. Luckily for him, we didn't really test him as we saw out the last 10 minutes, but the sending off was the confirmation that we were now in the quarter finals!

It was also interesting to see the new haircuts and colours that some players were fashioning last night. Josh Davison made me like him even more with his campaign to cut his hair for charity and Morgan Williams’ new hair reflecting brighter than the flood lights. While it was absolutely freezing, it was a fun and productive evening at Plough Lane and I thought we played extremely well. We have now beaten a lot of top League 1 sides, and that can only be positive for both the players' confidence, and the simple economic benefits that come with cup wins. Roll on Wrexham on Saturday. COYD!!

Match report AFC Wimbledon v Ipswich Town

It's probably a measure of how far AFC Wimbledon have come, when the talk in the bar afterwards was all "What might have been".

I shouldn't think even the doughtiest of Wimbledon fans would deny that their table topping opponents from two divisions up were the better team with better players, but equally Ipswich by the end will know they were in a proper game. We hung on in there despite huge setbacks and deserve huge credit. The manager spoke afterwards of his pride in the teams performance, I felt that too.

It hadn't begun well. We conceded as bad a goal as you'll see from a scruffy corner, got ourselves back into it with a stonewall Jake Reeves penalty, then gave an even worse goal away than the first one. For a team who are normally good at defending corners to give away so cheaply twice in one game will drive our dressing room mad. This is particularly the case as we were matching Ipswich every step of the way in between the two boxes.

The second half began as level as the first, until the Harry Pell incident. I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with Johnny and most of our fans here, I thought it was a nailed on second yellow card (as his first was a nailed on first yellow). It was right in front of me, I instantly thought he was in trouble.

From there I thought we might get battered, but I was totally wrong. We regrouped, Johnnie and the management team tweaked it, and we comfortably stayed in the game. Ipswich had their moments, but so did we as Armani Little forced a fine save from their keeper.

We rode our luck a bit but it remained 1-2. The plan was surely to stay in it till the end, then chuck the big lads on for the last few minutes. But then just as we were about to do just that, as big James Ball unfurled himself on the touchline, we conceded the third and the game was up.

There is no shame at all in this defeat though. Ipswich are an excellent team and demonstrated it here. They have top players who came out to play. We though, despite not having three of our best players gave them a right good go. Jack Currie was magnificent, at least as good as any of his opponents and we exit the cup with our heads held high.

Yes we need a couple of signings, but we have a good team, a good manager and a good recruiter. We're in safe hands and I'm not concerned. COYD and well played lads 👏.

Match report (written by Milly Dore) Forest Green Rovers v AFC Wimbledon

FGR Match Report

My visit to what must be the most unique football ground in the country could only be described as an extremely rainy form of character building. As we left the gorgeous village pub where we had been situated for the last few hours, we felt some small drops of rain cascade down from the deceiving blue sky. The phrases “it’s only spitting” and “my weather app says it will stop in ten minutes” were thrown around, and we began our walk to the ground in high spirits. The mood quickly changed when a monsoon decided to settle into the quaint village and we got absolutely drenched. 

Then just as we thought we could soften the blow of the ice cold rain pelting into our faces with a pint, the harsh reality quickly dawned on us that Forest Green did not serve any alcohol inside of the venue, and all of the food served was all entirely vegan! It’s not a motion that I disagree with, but it is a bit of a culture shock from the usual choice of a steak pie or a cheeseburger.

When we made it through the turnstiles I then saw the away end that we were dealing with. It was as if Mother Nature had coincided with whoever makes the fixture lists, and thought it would be funny to make 

us come to the a ground that had a COMPLETELY uncovered away end while it was pissing it down with rain. Lovely start to 2024.

Then the football began, and bless the players they really gave it a good go but the monsoon that was only getting worse really threw a spanner in the works regarding our game plan. For me, without a shadow of a doubt, MOTM was non other than Jack Currie. He was absolutely excellent throughout, almost conducting a masterclass on how to be a good left back, even in the treacherous conditions. Honourable mentions go to (I feel like a broken record here): Ali Al-Hamadi, Joe Lewis, and Alex Bass. Alex and Joe kept us in the game with their blocks and saves, while Ali was just Ali. He is so good that when he simply plays “well” but doesn’t have an incredible game it goes unnoticed, yet he is still miles better than everyone else around him.

The players battled and muscled their way through and I think they should all be proud. It’s one of those games that as my dad would say: “will put a few hairs on their chest”, and it’s an away day that will not be forgotten in the near future for both good and bad reasons, fans and players alike. While on paper the result was a disappointing one, for those that actually went to the game, I think we should be satisfied with the point. The men in green actually played really well, and that combined with the horrible conditions made for a tough challenge for the Dons. 

The only question I have for JJ and Skivvers is regarding the game is: What does James Ball have to do to get some minutes? It seems there has been a few times as of late that he would have slotted nicely into a match or the team but he hasn’t been utilised enough in my opinion. 

It breaks my heart to even acknowledge this, but I heard through the grapevine that Connor Lemonheigh-Evans may be going back to Stockport in this window. I’m crossing all of my fingers and toes, and praying to the football gods that this isn’t true. Connor is such a technically talented footballer and I think he has all the tools to go to at least the Championship. He has quickly become one of my favs in the current squad, so Stockport, in the nicest way possible: go away x

To conclude, while it was a cold, rainy, and very vegan afternoon at FGR I had a great time, and I’m very proud of the boys for battling it out. Good teams push through horrible conditions and make sure they don’t leave empty handed, and that’s exactly what we did. COYD!!!