AFC WIMBLEDON

The Youth

Before I get onto the AFC game a quick congratulations to the Youth for seeing off Swindon and setting up an away trip to Manchester City in the next round of the cup. I had toyed with the idea of going to the Swindon match but, influenced by the fact that I was going out (proper out, “out out”) the following two nights, the settee and the England game on TV won out.

If pushed on any club v country debate my vote is for the former. I’m a yellow 24×7 365 days a week and the red, white and blue only truly comes to the fore every two years when the major tournaments come around.

There are those amongst our yellow flock who do indeed watch the Youth on a fairly regular basis. They are not surprised with what we’ve seen from James Roberts in the first team and now Freddie Grant is being given rather good reviews too.

Unfounded Optimism?

Last week we:

• Signed Cheyenne Dunkley on loan from Kidderminster with the deal almost certainly going to become permanent in January. He is a centre half and apparently a tremendous prospect. This must mean that Michael Raynes, who was not even on the bench on Saturday, is on the way out. If this change is an improvement I have no argument. Football is a cruel world but I feel sorry for Raynesy. This is his third season with us and whilst he might not have the DNA of these “footballing centre halves” that exist in Utopia, but not League Two, he has in my eyes been a loyal servant in his time with us. Our current holders of the centre half spots do have a bit more of this footballing DNA but are a few inches shorter than Raynesy. Just saying. Cheyenne (can we trace his roots to the Great Plains?) is not quite as big.

• Signed Patrick Hoban from Dundalk but we won’t be getting him until the start of the New Year. I do not know how the standard in the League of Ireland Premier Division compares with League Two but he is currently joint top scorer over there. He’s also scored in the Europa League against Hadjuk Split. (So what, Marvin Robinson scored a goal in the Premiership)

• Didn’t sign John Campbell from Jarrow Roofing despite the Shields Gazette saying we’d got him on loan until January. That doesn’t mean we won’t get him. He’s bagged 20 plus goals already this season. They’ve been in the Northern League Division One. That is level 9 of the pyramid which is, for local comparison, on a par with the Hellenic League Premier Division. Think Ardley United and the likes.

All this activity, real or wished for, created a pre-match wave of optimism that didn’t really make sense but I must confess to going along with a small portion of it. I looked forward to the Wimbledon game a tiny bit more than otherwise would have been the case. Fool that I am.

The Real World

Water everywhere in the SSU that refused to go away. Where did it come from? Had someone decided to carry out an industrial scale clean of the concrete floors just before the turnstiles were opened? Utter madness. It was quite slippery underfoot in places and I heard that one disabled supporter went over. I am someone who pooh-poohs OTT health and safety but this was a ridiculous lack of common sense, presumably from someone running the Stadium Company. We pay a fortune for substandard facilities and surely must have grounds for withholding some rent after this crazy episode.

Were they cleaning it up for the rugby the following day? After all they pay a fraction of the rent we do. Got to have it nice and tidy for a visit of the Tigers?

I left the ground not feeling as pissed off as I did after the defeat to Wycombe but still far from being happy. Are people being conned I wonder because I cannot see any real evidence that we are transforming into a winning football team. Some believe though, so good luck to them.

The good thing is that we are now harder to beat. That is two clean sheets in a row and the defence is doing a tremendous job. This is in no small part down to Andy Whing’s contribution in front of the back line. I suspect that this grates with the management and that the DNA Whingy necessarily brings to the party is not that which they had in mind when mapping out their experiment on paper.

It was good to see us start so well and play almost all the entire first quarter of an hour in the Wimbledon half. It really was a pleasure to watch. Good movement, assured control, angled passes with the possession being all ours.

Now that really would have meant something if it had been the base from which we were to go on and launch attacks of meaning on the Wombles’ goal.

Sadly, that never happened. That early spell was our best of the game save for a few fleeting moments of actually attacking with pace in the second half. This was as a result of Tyronne Barnett playing a couple of really good diagonal long balls in to the vast space that had suddenly appeared down Wimbledon’s left flank. Joe Riley haring into that space took us forward with meaningful momentum but no goal resulted.

We had no penetration and much of what we did lacked pace. One first half incident spoke volumes. Alfie Potter had the ball tight to the touch line. Instead of heading down that line and whipping in a cross he came inside and ran almost two thirds of the way across the pitch allowing our opponents defence time to re-group with little trouble. I bet they weren’t sat in the dressing room afterwards saying that this had been one of the hardest games they’d had all season.

If they’d come for the point their game plan worked almost perfectly. They didn’t bother to press high up the park and as soon as we had the ball retreated to the half way line. This meant that we could knock it about with ease at the back but had the “two banks of four” that we’ve known about for years further up the field to have to get through. We had little clue how to do that. So when we get the manger and players come on to local radio and saying we played well but it is JUST in the final third we’ve got to do better I’m thinking shut the f**k up and pop into the real world with the rest of us (or is it only me?). It’s not JUST, it’s almost bloody EVERYTHING because it is in the final third where goals come from. That is what we should be working on in the training ground hour after hour after hour. It’s not as though teams won’t roll up at the Kassam in the future and defend really well with four and then another four and possibly a two too trying to stop us finding the back of the net. That’s what teams are supposed to do when they don’t have the ball. The onus is on us, as the home team, to take the initiative. And that is more than keeping the ball in areas where we can’t do serious damage to the opposition. It’s about getting the bloody thing into the box and, at the very least, making the goal-keeper we are facing earn his money. We never properly worked James Shea.

I can recall a first half header that the massive unit, Adebayo Akinfenwa, managed to deflect over the bar, a second half Danny Hylton shot that was lashed just wide, a couple of tame Potter efforts and something very wayward from Joe Riley and that was it. All rather poor, really.

At least Potter’s were on target but I thought he did not perform to a standard that justifies selection in the next game. Too lightweight and never seems to anticipate what is going to happen next. He was never consistent at the best of times and it is looking like those best of times may be well behind him now, with performances such as he produced at Northampton being very much the exception rather than the rule. A shame, but there it is.

I still think our mindset is all wrong so perhaps it is not fair to blame individual players too much. But why, when (and I’ve screamed about this before) we have a free kick on the half way line do we not launch it into the penalty box we are attacking, or perhaps more sensibly at least set off in the right direction. There was one occasion when we worked the ball all the way back to Ryan Clarke, who played it short with a couple of passes then following before we lost possession back where we had started, on the half way line. Which isn’t where the fecking goal is we are supposed to be attacking, is it now? Well not in the coaching manuals I’ve read.

Most players had pretty good games individually but given that the overall team performance was nowhere near good enough the blame has to lie elsewhere. Need I say more?

We’re NINETEENTH, that is embarrassing. Season ticket holders from 2013/14 who did not renew may have got in free if they could be bothered to take up the offer – and the majority couldn’t be arsed, I believe – but they are not going to rush back after this offering. In the toilets post match, “boring wasn’t it” could not be argued with.

And just to add to the gloom, James Roberts is now injured. Unlike last week his body had given it’s all before the end. But he tried to force a little bit more out of it and twang, one hamstring’s gone. Obviously very disappointed for the lad and hope to see him back soon.

Post match, I walk into the pub and see this on offer. Everywhere I look I’m being taunted.