The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

After yesterday’s results I can’t believe we are still 3/1 against being relegated. I feel that Oldham will have enough ‘know how’ to survive and Northampton have a decent manager and a big budget-ful of new signings. Fleetwood have also changed manager and have a decent squad, so to me we would be favourites to join the ‘dead men walking’ of Bury, Rochdale and Franchise.

I’ve been trying to figure out our best formation and starting line up to try and achieve survival. Here are my thoughts:

1. As I see it, our disadvantage against virtually ever other team in the division is our midfield. As a unit they are slow (in thought and deed) and do not work as a unit. Obviously, I feel that Trotter is a major problem (IMO our worst ever signing in the AFCW era), but I feel that the problem goes deeper than just him. Soares, Abdou and Trotter do not play as a unit, just three individuals of limited ability.

2. We cannot by-pass midfield this season as we may have done in past seasons when we had Akinfenwa or Elliott as the outlet – Taylor refuses to head the ball, Pigott is too lightweight and McDonald is too small. So, somehow we need to improve the midfield as both an attacking and defensive unit.

3. Without the personnel available to us, I feel that we need to flood the midfield (with a plan) to try to get some form of control during a match. Thus. IMO 4-4-2 is out, and indeed 2 up top in any formation is liable to result in relegation.

4. I also feel that we should try and introduce some new players. Those who have got us here have failed and the team is looking in need of extra pace and guile.

5. Taking all this into consideration I have come up with the following (possibly experimental) line up to give us the best chance of survival. I doubt for a minute that the manager would play anything like this line up, but I feel that it would give us the best chance of establishing some form of control in matches and scraping together the 15 or so points we need for survival.

6. I also feel that the starting XI below would need to be drilled intensively on the training ground to act as a unit, but once again I do not believe that our management team have the discipline (or perhaps even the coaching ability) to get the team playing as a unit.

7. I have introduced Nightingale (as soon as fit) to add energy and aggression, and also to lift the crowd who will need to stay 100% behind the team if we are to survive. I have also added Parrett for some guile in midfield. As I am only playing Taylor up top then we will need someone to thread the passes through to him.

8. Here is my starting line up which would play as a ‘fluid’ 3-4-2-1 formation:

Long,
Oshilaja, Charles, Nightingale,
Barcham, Fuller,
Soares, Abdou,
Parrett, Forrester,
Taylor.

– Barch and Fuller to play as wing backs, but Barch under strict orders to cut inside and look for midfield runners instead of driving to the byline and lofting aimless balls to no one at the back post.
– Charles to ‘sit’ central in the back 3, allowing Deji and Will to commit their inevitable impetuous mistakes.
– Deji would also need to drift wide left to cover Barch’s inevitable poor defending.
– Soares to sit and Abdou to adopt the Bulman ‘headless chicken’ mode in central midfield, but hopefully within a framework of others covering the inevitable gaps.
– Parrett and Forrester to work together (little chance I know) behind Taylor, both getting forward to support him, but also acting as the first line of defence.

OK, it will never see the light of day and would probably not work even if it was tried, but I needed to get it off my chest because I currently see us sleepwalking towards the fourth relegation spot.

[MacWomble]

Colum makes a good point; maybe League Two would be better for us. Isn’t this all about killing time until lots of people dress up as wombles at the Grand Opening and Bonnie Langford makes a guest appearance? When for goodness is that day ever going to come? Hadrians Wall was probably built faster. I doubt the Burys and Rochdales of this world get too excited about going down; it’s the same old shit teams going up and down ad-nauseum, ad-infinitum. We just need to accept we’re in that shit Club, accept our fate, get promoted back to L2, get relegated, yawn, and then hey presto it is the new stadium, the new fans, the new money, the new buzz, the challenge for the Premiership, and we will all be old.

[liamwimbo]

There is a lot of negativity around the club at the moment, obviously with some justification. However I hope yesterday’s win over Oxford will improve people’s spirits. Sounds like we won ugly, but that is what it takes this time of the year. Rochdale away next week is another 6 pointer and without being pessimistic, I would take a draw now. Now that we are on 41 points, I think another 11 points would be enough for survival. So that is 3 wins and 2 draws from 10 games. COYDs.

[onyadon]

A crucial win against Oxford United and more importantly a crucial three points towards the safety target. Another 9-10 points should do it and you would hope there is enough left in the squad to eke that out. It’s not going to come easy, this team struggles to get points. Looking ahead I would be hoping for points against Fleetwood Town (H), maybe something at Doncaster Rovers, the London derby with Charlton Athletic (H), Walsall (A), Oldham Athletic (H) and the final day at home to Bury. Neal Ardley will have to squeeze what’s left from limited resources. I am reasonably confident of staying up, but I have detected a lot of unease/agitation among the fans (on forums/social media), and whatever happens in the run-in there will be a significant team rebuild in the offing, irrespective of what league we play next season. But in the meantime, we get behind the lads and play our part to get them across the line.

[Windlesham Don]

In my opinion yesterday was a ‘must win’ game. At home, against managerless opposition who were on a poor run of form, three points was a must with two tough away fixtures ahead.

We duly achieved this, but for me this was almost the only positive to come out of the afternoon.

I was hoping for the team to be quick out of the blocks, but we were slow, ponderous and nervous, and Oxford needed to do little to take the initiative.

We set up 3-5-2, but Oxford exploited the weakness of Francomb and Barcham as wing backs time and again during the opening period, attacking seemingly at will on either flank. Our famously lethargic midfield was once again nowhere to be seen…

Just as things were looking grim, the black enigma that is ‘referee’ Chris Sarginson stepped in to give us a major step up into the game. It takes a referee with his unique ‘ability’ to judge that Forrester’s tumble over a fallen Oxford defender, with the ball 10 yards away and heading out of the box, merited him pointing to the spot. However in our position, and having been on the rough end of Mr Sarginson’s unique take on the art of refereeing before, we will take everything we can get.

There was massive relief when Taylor actually managed to convert a spot kick (by changing his aim as the keeper dived confidently to his right where Taylor always misses), but this did not change the narrative of the game.

Once again Oxford flooded forward and their expected equaliser came with Wimbledon players rushing after the ball like kids at infants’ school playground. Oxford simply carved us open once again and when Long seemingly lost the use of his hands and allowed a shot to bounce off his body, the rebound was calmly dispatched.

Half time came with only one side looking capable of winning. It was a grim and nervous bar where we all agreed that a change in tactics and personnel was needed.

Remarkably it materialised, with a switch to 4-4-2 and the introduction of Meades for the shell shocked Barcham and Pigott for the ineffectual McDonald.

The defence looked stronger for this change and the game became more even, despite Oxford still showing most of the quality.

And this is where we seemed to display an ability which may just be the difference between survival and relegation – we seem to be able to score on occasions through sheer ‘force of will’. It was a horribly scrappy goal, and we just clung on after it, but it gave us the desperately needed win. No slick build up, no crisply hit shot, just an aimless ball into the box and a slowly bouncing scuff past a keeper in no man’s land…

Job done.

However, and there is a big ‘however’ from yesterday, the team looks nervous and lacking confidence from 1 to 11. Long seems to have lost the use of his hands, preferring to punch or put his body in the way whenever catching is the best option. Baz was slow and tentative until riled by a personal ‘scrap’ with an opponent. The midfield was once again non-existent in defence and showed very little going forward – they should be a unit, but are patently just playing as individuals. Taylor was at his ‘show pony’ primadonna best, playing for himself (and presumably a move away in the summer).

So things are still grim and we are still a mile away from safety in my view. Two defeats from our next two tough games and we will be back in the mire. This season has a long, long way to go yet…

[Colum]

A lot has already been said about the Oxford game. I won’t disagree with a lot of it, but I will with some of it. So by way of my own opinion, here are some additional thoughts of yesterday.

I spent the first 45 minutes having to button my lip. Why? Because around me were a large group of Ardley bashers who spent the entire time taking the piss out of just about everyone. Even Erik Samuelson wasn’t spared, with talk that he should resign. I’ve learnt not to argue with such idiots. It was so negative an atmosphere that I moved at half time.

That’s not to say they didn’t have a grievance. Their “Cody watch” saw them follow his movement and touches. The fact that it took him almost 15 minutes to touch the ball at all, gave them a massive ammunition dump of projections to aim at him and Neal Ardley. It is clear that he isn’t the right player for us, especially with our tactics and a 3-5-2 formation.

The difference was the arrival of Piggott. It was a shame to see Barcham go off, but he’s spent most of the first 45 playing at full back. He’d done an OK good at best, but that isn’t where he should be. The slightly bemusing position in the 3-5-2 formation was wee Forrester playing in a central role. He looked utterly lost chasing shadows. It was painful to watch.

One other observation from the first 45 was the inability for Long, Fuller, or just about anyone to launch a long ball to anywhere approaching one of our players. It is all well and good being able to kick a ball 60 yards, but if a free kick is from midway between your area and the centre circle, it’s utterly pointless doing so.

So Piggott and Meades arrived on the pitch and suddenly we actually won some ball in the final third. Joe still needs to “man up”, as he’s pushed off the ball way too easily for my liking, but he did win headers and caused the Oxford defence quite a few problems.

The ref didn’t surprise us. He was as shit as he has been previously. He let several crunching tackles go unpunished, gave a penalty that was as ridiculous a decision as you’re ever likely to see, gave a delayed yellow instead of what should have been a straight red for a Oxford elbow, and spent half his time looking at this assistants hoping they would make a decision before deciding he’d better do it for them.

At the final whistle I saw the aforementioned moaners pass by cheering and clapping the players and management as they left the pitch. I know we’re not safe yet, but surely we need to stick together. Wouldn’t we be better if such two faced supporters went elsewhere?

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