The Lounge

[Devon Womble]

So…. we won! Wow! Now’s there’s a concept to grapple with. Reading the management report though you’d have to say it was not one filled with ‘that’s the way it should be against L2 opposition’ but one more along the lines of ‘Phew! We live another day’.
Who knows though? Was today a “Pride in the Shirt” moment when suddenly we discover that the sky is blue and all will be well, or will the demise of the only player who knows where the goal is mean that this was just a false dawn? Will our U21’s continue to be bench warmers, or will NA run out of players through injury and be forced to let them win one (or several) for the club? Will McDonald and Forrester do what we expect of them or will they turn out to be the traditional targets for derision… so much a part of NA’s Summer signings?

Don’t miss next week’s exciting episode… well, you will if you are signed up to ifollow of course… (yet another atrocious broadcast from them).

P.S. With barely 2,500 Dons fans at the game today we could save a lot of money on NPL if we just ask people to bring their own deckchair…

Time to go lie down…

[onyadon]

A great relief the Dons are in the hat for Monday’s second round draw of the FA Cup. It wasn’t expected to be pretty and it certainly wasn’t. But the bottom line: Wimbledon are still in the FA Cup after avoiding a first-round banana skin. The mood remains dire among the supporters. Many claimed it was again dross football and there appears a veil of despondency over the club. A couple of observations/thoughts. Full marks to Cody McDonald for his selfless running in this tie. It’s been a helluva struggle for him this season as he plays in a structurally unnatural team set-up (for him). No target man to play off negates his effectiveness, but he is keeping at it. Hoping somehow it will turn for him. While the Dons defence had to batten down the hatches to protect Lyle Taylor’s early goal, it was instructive how off-song the team was against a visiting League 2 team (albeit FA Cup quarter-finalists last season). The team showed admirable resilience to hang on, if not its attacking fluidity, which remains a problem this season with three defensive midfielders. What was noticeable was Neal Ardley missing from making his usual post-match comments. Instead it was Neil Cox who fronted the media, like he did in the lead-up to the tie along with Simon Bassey. Unless I’m mistaken, Ardley did not speak about the match in the lead-up or wash-up in what is traditionally an important FA Cup week. Something is up. Either Ardley resents the amount of flak flying about (and there is plenty) or there are some other personal issues away from the public gaze. Apparently, Ardley did not applaud the supporters after the game. It is a relief the Dons are still in the FA Cup, but the performance gave no reason to think the team is about to turn the corner more than a third of the way through the season. I would be most interested to read the views of those who were at Saturday’s game and their thoughts..

[Singapore Don]

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win and £18k for the January Desperately Needed Striker Fund. Grateful for small mercies, we did see a goal – though Lyle’s complete absence of celebration reflected the general malaise which is now gripping our club. Windlesham wrote eloquently of the pea souper fog-like gloom enveloping all Dons, and Rob too was spot on in referring to the veil of despondency which has descended across the club. I’ve never known an atmosphere like it, certainly not in our reincarnated form. Everything and everyone is just flat. There’s no buzz, no energy, and sadly right now no real hope. Our expectations are non existent. Hence the underwhelming build-up and post match response. You would never have known it was an FA Cup game such was the low key atmosphere in the bar before the game and on the terraces; only the Lincoln fans had a genuine sense of excitement and thrill. The Dons crowd was flat and muted, and that’s just those who were there. I was surrounded in the John Green Stand by a sea of empty seats, and the Chemflow looked thinly populated too, while the Lincoln following filled the Rygas. Only 2,300 Dons fans bothered to show up. And that is worrying. People are voting with their feet now. Crowds have been down all season, and yesterday the stay away was stark. Fans are fed up with the turgid, boring, thoroughly unentertaining football on offer. There is absolutely no excitement, no sense of hope that we have options in our squad to put on a swashbuckling, goal fest crazy performance – which is what we so desperately need to lift the gloom and lift our spirits. We’re in a constant 0-0/1-0/0-1 Groundhog Day of the dullest football you can imagine. And I am sure that is why Neal Atdley doesn’t do the post match interviews or acknowledge the fans after games any more – because he has nothing new to say. We’ve heard all the “boys trained well”/”luck not with us” etc comments that have been churned out week after week all season. We’ve had enough. We want goals, we want excitement, we want to be entertained. Basically, we want to be able to hope again. We’re in a long dark tunnel right now, we have been since March or even since Sutton in January, and it’s hard to see any light at the end of that tunnel right now. We’ve had two feel good games in eight months – against the unspeakables in March and Rotherham last month – otherwise supporting Wimbledon this year has been a joyless, rather depressing experience. Perhaps a good Cup run will fill out coffers to buy that exciting forward to bang in some goals, give us some options and restore our hope and faith. If not, judging by the turnout at the Lincoln and most league games this season, we won’t have a chance of hoping to fill all those extra seats at the new Plough Lane. These are dark and I really believe defining days for the future of our club. There’s almost an existential threat to the wellbeing of our wonderful club. The one hope I cling on to now is that we, that someone, can rekindle the passion and rediscover the magic of Wimbledon. I want to ENJOY watching and supporting my club again. Come on you Dons!

[Colum]

I’ll pick up on your point about NA Rob. He didn’t go over to the fans after the game. In fact what was interesting was the post match huddle in the centre circle. Whether he was inside it I don’t know, but it was very noticeable, and most of the players didn’t make a great deal of effort to come towards the fans, In fact one or two them couldn’t wait to get off.

I saw Deji and Will Nightingale in the bar afterwards. Deji was meeting friends, and Will was there with his Mum and Dad. No other players. Even the MOTM presentation that normally sees a few sticking their heads around the corner only had the winner there. Is there a bit of bunker mentality in the team? Who knows. They do all seem to singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to speaking about games and the team. It’s almost as if they’ve been told what to say, but that’s been the way for awhile.

As for the game, it wasn’t pretty. Lincoln hoofed the ball up to the bean pole of a centre forward. Considering his size, he had an unerring ability to fall over, cry fool, and generally get the home fans against him from the start. Time and time again he’s subtlety push defenders, dive, and complain before being subbed after 70 minutes. How this game didn’t get any yellow cards for simulation is beyond me. Their number 8 wasn’t alone in this. In the second half, one of the midfielders went over like a back of spuds clutching his face, only to literally leap to his feet and start running after the ball. Trouble was the ref had stopped play, and the trainer had rushed onto the pitch onto to be sent back by the ref. Cue an embarrassing trudge to the touchline until he was allowed on again, and a argument between player and trainer. It was classic stuff.

Cody McDonald – wait for it – had an OK game. He harassed, and ran his socks off. He so nearly got on the end of couple of chances, and he made our goal. Poor old Lyle though, having to go off again. Having been on the end of a robust challenge of which he was deemed the offender (!) he was never the same again. I was speaking to someone afterwards, who had spoken to Lyle. Lyle had said it was no good, but Lyle would consider a split end to be a bad injury!

So we’re in the hat for round two, which is all we can ask. I’d hope for a draw against another League Two or non-league team, hopefully away. I just feel we’d have a better chance of progressing if we were away from home.

One final word on Lincoln. Their fans were tremendous. 1000 of them sang and jumped around for pretty much the entire 90 minutes. They’re a credit to their club. I just wish that bloody drum of theirs could keep rhythm. Mind you if I’d been banging the darn thing repetitively for 90 minutes, I might be just as bad. I think they need to think about a drum substitute.

[onyadon]

Onpassing Windlesham Don’s FA Cup observations ..

We are in the hat for the next round, but I can take little more than that out of the game. This was as close as you could get to a joyless FA Cup win – quiet crowd, Lyle not celebrating his goal and a second half where we looked like the minnow clinging on for victory. This is against a team who were in the Conference last season…
Lyle not celebrating the goal was odd (but then again Lyle is eccentric at the best of times), I can only assume it was down to Danny Cowley being the manager who gave him his first break at Concord Rangers?
For me the only positives to be taken out of the game (apart from the result and the accompanying cash, of course) are:
1. Another solid defensive display from Long, Charles and Oshilaja, snuffing out most of Lincoln’s ‘hoofball’ attacks with ease;
2. Lyle’s fifth goal in as many matches, and clinically taken, demonstrating a sharpness that was missing at the start of the season;
3. The return of Jon Meades;
4. Harry Forrester.
Sadly, even those few positives have downsides – Lyle limped off once again (although he came to sit in the main stand second half without strapping or ice, so obviously not too bad) and Harry undoubtedly will be wanting out in January – he is far too good for us at present and gets little support when he is on the ball.
So, we are in Monday’s draw. One of the minnows, or a struggling League 2 outfit at home would be good, so we have the prospect of making it to the third round and a decent pay day.
Whatever the draw brings, there is a certainty that our play will be as grim and dour as this until January at least. We need to grind out results, 0-0s and nicked 1-0 victories, so that we keep accumulating points. Our strength is undoubtedly our defence, and we need to play to this strength until we can recruit another goalscorer. The worse the position we are in when the window opens, the less the chance of securing a decent target man.
What we are witnessing at the moment may not be pretty, but it is vital for our survival in the division this season.

[Devon Womble]

OK… So one of our best hopes for a revival goes out on loan because “he needs more first team action”….
Unless someone can give me a lucid logical cast iron reason for this apparently insane decision at a time when the club is so utterly desperate for an injection of their pace, desire, and ability in our league matches, I have to declare that I’ve totally lost it with NA. I mean totally. Over and out.

[Author]

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