The Lounge

[onyadon]

Neal Ardley says the players gave everything against Charlton and I have no quibble about that. But yet again the Dons failed to score. That’s 10 times in 16 League games this season and a miserable goal tally of just nine, by the far the worst in L1. I am noticing a growing discontent with ‘Nil’ Ardley, significantly from long-time Dons supporters. They are very unhappy at the football being served up and the manager’s tactics/lineups. Some are not bothering turning up any more. I have a great deal of respect for Neal Ardley and for his work at the club over the last five years, but that doesn’t mean he is immune to criticism and he’s copping plenty of it. It is reflected in his recent comments/rebuttals on the club’s web-site. Ardley might argue about our progress on a relatively modest budget, but the gaffer must also take responsibility for the recruitment he has spent with that money and the way he sets the team up (and leaves some players in). The Dons are clearly labouring in attack, too predictable and too often missing chances and paying for the lack of a tall striker (Cody McDonald is particularly affected by not playing alongside a target man and accordingly has lost confidence). Ardley still has time to turn it around, but with each passing game (and missed opportunity) the pressure mounts on him and the team’s season survival. This may not be palatable for some, but the great majority of managers have a shelf life and maybe (maybe) Ardley is just about reaching it. That time has not come yet, but things need to change. It just can’t keep on this way. We all felt this would be a tough season. The reality is it is much tougher than we feared and it’s not because we’re unlucky. The table doesn’t lie.

[liamwimbo]

Good comments, Rob. Suddenly the “Ardley Out” jokes are no longer funny, and may be becoming a prophecy. What I find frustrating is the predictability of it all. Woke up at HT last night and saw it was 0-0. Went back to sleep almost expecting the final score to be 1-0. The lack of goals has become a huge problem and surely has led to a lack of confidence. One small consolation is that we won’t be dropping any more League points next weekend.

[Windlesham Don]

Watching the Dons is quite a tough duty at the moment, but I won’t stop going to matches because we are playing poorly. The club has given us some great memories over the years, so I feel that I owe them my support in the difficult times ahead.

NA explained the situation pre-match. We have several creative players out injured (well, only two in my book – Forrester and Appiah), which means that we are going to have to grind out results by keeping it tight at the back and hoping for some breaks. Should we be more adventurous? Should we play our three ‘non-creative’ midfielders together? Possibly, but yesterday was not the time to go gung ho for a victory.

Charlton will be challenging for automatic promotion at the end of the season, they have a wealth of creative and dangerous attacking options. So much so that it was chalk and cheese watching the two sides! However, NA set the team up to be solid and hopefully nick something and I believe that was the correct way to play yesterday’s game.

It almost worked. Charlton had 6 shots and only 1 on target in 90 minutes. The one shot on target was the goal and I feel that Long should have dealt with it comfortably – he lost concentration. At the other end we had 7 shots, but couldn’t manage one on target. A poor attempt from Deji, a free kick deflected agonisingly wide off the wall and a cross deflected on to the Charlton bar. We aren’t getting the breaks at the moment, but in my view yesterday was not the day to play an expansive game.

Finally, a word for the referee: pillock! We only needed to breathe on a Charlton player and he gave a yellow. The other way round and nothing was given. I don’t know whether his journey to the ground was an Odyssey, but he was definitely a Homer…

On to next week, where another defensive performance will not be received as sympathetically. We need Forrester back and we need Appiah fit. Mostly, though, we need to get to January so that we can bring in a target man striker – I hope that we have targets and will have lined one up, with the funds in place to get him by the start of the window…

[Colum]

Reading some of the Facebook comments on the club’s post of yesterday’s game made uncomfortable reading. Not because of what was being said, but because who was saying it. There was nothing new in the content, but when you’ve voices from could be con strewed to be members of the club’s establishment doing a bit of Ardley bashing, you can’t help take a bit more notice.

There is no doubt that we are playing like a team with a budget in the bottom six of League One. Yes some of the team selections have been a bit off, but yesterday I think it was about right. Yes our summer recruitment could have been better, but we don’t know the half of any negotiations that took place with players that went elsewhere. Maybe Ardley’s sweet talking just didn’t work this time around. It is what it is, and we have to work with what we’ve got until January. The tactics nearly worked yesterday. If we’d have got a point, many of those negative comments may not have been so forthright.

Looking forward, I don’t see a lot changing until the transfer window. It will be a long hard slog. No doubt we’ll pick up points along the way, but we should at at or around the 25 point mark by the New Year to stand any chance of avoiding a relegation battle. That’s another 10 points, and two months and nine games to get them.

As for the transfer window, we’ll have to let some of the current crop go in order to get new players in. It is clear where our weaknesses are. We need at least a good old fashioned centre forward and a creative midfielder. I’d expect at least one of Trotter, Soares, or Abdou to leave. Will that be enough to raise some funds? I doubt it. Could we let Robinson go? What about McDonald? Maybe he’d be a totally different player if he had someone to do the hard work near him. Somehow I doubt it, so maybe he’ll go as well.

What the naysayers seem to forget is that as a club we have to look at the bigger picture. We aren’t, and hopefully never will be, a club that sacks managers just because they lost a few games. Neal Ardley has brought us success. He’s done wonders with the pittance he’s been given, and we should be thankful for that. Could someone else have done better? Maybe, but the chancing we’ll be pushing for promotion from this league are slim on our budget. So in fairness we should expect to finish mid table at best. In one sense Neal was right about the team giving everything yesterday. It is when they don’t for a sustained period, that I’ll question whether it is time for him to go.

[Colum]

Onto Saturday and another must win game in mu opinion, if for no other reason but to restore some confidence in the supporter base. If we lose, it won’t be the end of the world. Lose badly, and I the pressure ratchets up a couple more gears.

Lincoln City are no mugs. Currently ninth in league one, a few places below Luton who beat us on Tuesday. They’ll fancy their chances. They average a goal a game, and we average one every two. We both concede a goal a game.

Key to this game will be the first goal. That is why I’m so nervous about Saturday. With our only player likely to score going off injured in the Luton game, I sure hope someone else stands upright on the plate.

Will we be in round two? I hope so, but I haven’t been this nervous about a game in a long, long time. Not even the playoff games and the final game of our first League Two season.

[onyadon]

This post from Windlesham Don..

The gloom around the fan base at the moment is like a damp, November, British pea-souper fog – chilling to the bone and with no sign of lifting…
There appears to be little cup fever around this game, and that is a terrible shame as the team and the fans will need to be at their best to overcome a Lincoln side with fresh memories of FA Cup success.
The first symptoms of our current malaise probably occurred in the cup, with that dreadful Sutton replay in January. Things have drifted downhill since then IMO.
We have to start hauling ourselves out of this mood, and that means progressing in the cup. Injury concerns appear to be lifting, although Meades is unlikely to start after a good workout on Tuesday. Appiah is the person we need back, to give our strike force a bit of a lift, but that may still be a few weeks away. The intriguing issue for me is whether Harry Forrester will be involved – call me a cynic if you like, but if Rangers want to sell him to a Championship club in January it may be an easier sell if he isn’t cup-tied. We shall see…
We are desperately in need of a lucky break at the moment. I will back the management team and agree that we aren’t playing bad, we certainly aren’t witnessing relegation form, but we can’t buy a goal and the opposition keep nicking one.
It will be a ‘hairy’ rollercoaster ride tomorrow I’m sure, against a strong and powerful side who will be up for the match. We will need to hang in there defensively and hope that we can catch a break going forward.
COYD!!

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