The Lounge

[Colum]

I sympathise with your view Devon, but I can also understand NA’s reasoning. Alfie has talent and pace, but he isn’t as big and strong as Soares, Abdou, or Trotter. He’s arguably also behind young Hartigan in the pecking order. Sure he might get the odd game for us, but if he wants to play first team football, he has to go somewhere else. NA obviously likes the defensive type of player in midfield, and Alfie doesn’t really fit that mold.

[Colum]

Our midfield woes were there for all to see in this televised game. A 2-2 draw may appear like an entertaining game, but it was pretty poor. To be fair to the players, it wasn’t helped by the fussiest of refs.

It all started so well with Lyle doing what he does best. Cody seemed to do OK as well, even breaking his duck with a good finish after holding off the defender well.

Trouble was our two central midfielders are about as quick as a sloth with a hangover. First Trotter gave away a free kick after a Posh player went past him in slow motion. Cue a good delivery into the box and 1-1. Then Soares gave away a stonewall penalty after another similar run past him. Throw in the horrendous miss by Trotter from one yard out. All he had to do was stand there and head the ball into the goal. Somehow he contrived to head it a yard over. Soares and Trotter did nothing to endear themselves to the fans. There was even a section telling the ref to send Trotter off rather than give him a yellow to give us a chance.

All in all, this was a good result though. Posh will be there or thereabouts come April. The only downside were the goals we conceded. Positives were Cody scoring, and George Long making a couple of fine saves.

[onyadon]

I had my first look at the Dons in the televised game against Posh. Flying start, Lyle Taylor scores in opening 35 seconds, nice leadup from Forrester, but it soon became apparent that Peterborough were a much better footballing side and their goals came as no surprise. Although the first one came off the back of Barry Fuller’s shoulder in off the far post and Tom Soares conceded a needless penalty with the player well away from the goal on the (inside) fringe of the 16 yard box. I didn’t think we would score again (given our paltry record) but was delighted to see Cody McDonald swoop onto a long ball and finish well past the keeper. Wimbledon could have won it, but then Posh had the better chances in the second half and George Long made two fantastic saves. What was noticeable was the lack of mobility/pace/presence in the midfield: Trotter and Soares are similar style players and there was no one capable of distributing the ball to the front men in a measured fashion. Lyle spent most of the time remonstrating over calls against him, Forrester and Barcham dipped in and out of the game, Cody McDonald was busy, but gee there is a lack of cutting edge in the front third. The defence was not bad; Oshilaja and Charles had some work to do and Barry Fuller was typically pugnacious. He’s a strong little bugger and gives as good as he gets, although he gets beaten for pace. I thought George Francomb was meh. Neal Ardley only used one sub. Meades on for Barcham. He obviously didn’t trust bringing on Academy players Hartigan and Kaja. Hartigan and his supporters must be pissed off at the kid’s lack of opportunities after looking so good earlier in the season and particularly with the lumbering and largely ineffective Trotter and Soares ahead of him. Wimbledon battled well for the point, but they had the look of a team struggling for playing rhythm. Their attack is very haphazard and stilted. Sure Posh are one of the leading L1 sides, but I wasn’t encouraged by what I saw from Wimbledon. It all still remains a jumble out there and no target man really stymies the team going forward.

[Devon Womble]

What my more learned (and perhaps less emotionally charged) colleagues on here have pointed out, is precisely my frustration with NA.
We most definitely do have better option than our present lumbering back-peddling midfielders but those options remain firmly planted on the bench. Meanwhile, our forwards having appeared to have (finally) found where the net is, are having to go fetch the ball from our seven defenders in order to do anything about it.

So unfathomable are NA’s midfield choices at present that you have to wonder sometimes if players like Hartigan are not subject to a big offer from a poaching club and cannot therefore be risked pending that deal…. I seem to recall that the same thing sort of happened to Elliot before he left.
Personally though, no offer can be big enough to cover the losses we are currently sustaining in revenue, or will sustain if we get relegated.

Considering that this constant failing of NA’s has been going on for some weeks now, with seemingly everyone in the terraces having the same opinion as to what he needs to do about it, is it little wonder that those fans have deserted him in droves?
He may have achieved great things for us in his tenure, but the man in charge is not the force he was a year ago. What’s up with him I don’t know but with two clubs above us with games in hand we need positive action now, and that action may well need to be NA’s demise. January will be too late, and NA will probably sign the wrong guy again anyhow.

[MacWomble]

I can’t imagine that the players on the bench are that much better than those on the pitch. Would they make much of a difference? The magic faeries arrive! We are not going to benefit from losing the Gaffer. I think it would be a mistake. The players need to start using their heaps of training time to actually improve and to learn to play as a team. It is in their hands, not the Gaffer’s. Can’t imagine the terrace atmosphere is providing motivation. We need some men on the pitch to guide the boys, rather than bleating and moaning about the ref’s decision. It’s all rather petulant to be a professional football player and still not have the intelligence to realise that some refs are good, others not so. You’d think that would be learned by 16. Time to man-up Wimbledon and stop playing like Sunday on the Hackney Marshes. The Gaffer was a good professional; maybe they should watch some early Crazy Gang videos and have their iPhones taken away from them. Though they may cry like babies.

[Devon Womble]

Did I miss something????
Today’s official website headline is an article on the upcoming game.
It details quotes from the two club managers…
Quotes from the Dons Manager are credited to…
‘Neil Cox’….

Hmmmm……

[Author]

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