The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

Looking forward to tomorrow as the second in a series of matches against teams around us in the table. Historically, Scunthorpe have been an open and attacking team, generally in and around the playoffs. However, this season has not gone well for them, winless since the opening day of the season and with Stuart McCall now at the helm. After their defence has been shipping goals for fun they will welcome playing against our misfiring strike force (what is the opposite of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object?!)

After a dominant performance against the Gills, three points tomorrow will see us in the top half of the table. However, Kingsmeadow has not exactly been a fortress for us this season – three points and a clean sheet would be great, but I’d be happy with another dominant performance allowing the Footballing Gods to decide whether we are worthy of their blessing…

Liam and Singapore, if you fancy catching up for a pre-match chat then I should be at the ground by 13:45…

COYD!!

[Singapore Don]

Unfortunately I’m missing my first home game tomorrow since still working in China – so no prematch chewing the Dons fat tomorrow Windlesham. I’ll be cheering the boys on from Beijing. I just hope the ref doesn’t disadvantage us as he did at the Fleetwood home game last season. Let’s have those 3 points! COYD!

[Windlesham Don]

Singapore – grateful if you could bring me back some sweet and sour pork balls and special fried rice – ta muchly…

;o)

[Windlesham Don]

I have been disappointed coming away from a few games this season, but I have always been able to cling on to the fact that we were playing high tempo, trying to pass the ball and were completely different to the dross dished up for much of last season. Yesterday I came away angry, because that was ‘dross reunited’!

I thought the three comedy goals conceded against Walsall was enough for an entire season, but the Charlie Cairoli defending was back at full tilt yesterday – each goal was a car crash, King for the first, the entire back line for the second and Deji for the third. Woeful stuff…

However, I wouldn’t mind if we had stuck to our recent play going forward, but even that disappeared. The ‘wardrobes’ were back in force, midfield was bypassed because no one was showing for a pass, and we ended up punting fruitless long balls to Pigott and Appiah.

Once again “gallant little Wimbledon” fought back to almost rescue a point, simply through force of will rather than any tactical adeptness. However, I for one am sick of “gallant little Wimbledon” defeats, I want a solid defence, a creative midfield and strikers who will score when presented with a decent chance.

No wonder the manager was angry at that display…

[Colum]

Another defeat and were sitting just about the drop zone. Sound familiar? After the early season optimism, talk in the online forums is depressingly familiar. So much so, that I’ve stopped visiting them.

So on to Oxford which has to be a must win game. It’s at home and they’re playing even worse than us, so this should be a banker home win. But, and it’s a big but, we cannot afford to give away cheap early goals. We simply haven’t got the firepower to get back into games. We’ve the second lowest goals for total (behind Plymouth) in the league, and no one else apart from Piggott seems to consistently know where the goal is. It’s simple maths. If we keep going 2-0 down, we’re not going to win many games when you only scored 7 goals in 9 games! Worryingly Oxford have scored more than us, but conceded way more. It could prove to be an entertaining but frustrating afternoon.

[rob]

Last time I was Accrington it was one of the best football moments of all time. A stunning victory in the play off semi final, players and fans celebrating together on the pitch, selfies with the manager and promotion to look forward to. Fast forward to yesterday. You couldn’t get a bigger contrast.A desperate display,fans leaving without the usual applause for the players and the manager standing looking decidedly disconsolate outside the shed which doubles as a changing room. No promotion to look forward to but certainly the strong possibility of relegation. It was a shambles. The first 20 minutes was worse than watching school boy football. Accrington sliced us open and the midfield may well have stayed in the changing rooms. The defence looked shakey and we were lucky that we were only one down. It was awful. McDonald and Oshilaji were hopelessly exposed and didn’t look good. There has been a lot of debate about Trotter over the last season and his performances have divided fans. Yesterday it was like he had a season ticket to watch the game rather than be part of it. He wasn’t in the game and was hopeless. This exposed Soares who attempted to cover the back four on his own but came up a little bit short.There is absolutely no creativity in midfield which meant most passing moves ended with Purrington being pushed into a corner and with no outlet giving the ball away. Andy Barcham was eventually pushed inside to give much needed support but was then playing out of position. The front 2 got very little service and had no impact on the game.How could it go so wrong? Was it the players not performing or was it the management getting tactics wrong? Whatever the reason it was one of the worst displays I have seen for years.
Second half was a significant improvement but I think everyone in the crowd was so fed up with the first half performance that they were resigned to the inevitable. Two new signings came on and made a difference. The energy Wagstaff provided for the midfield was excellent. He offered so much more than the others and capped it off with a fine goal. Jake Jervis created problems and looked dangerous – he must deserve a run out soon?? And yes they did head the ball off the line in the 92nd minute from an acrobatic effort from Piggott but that would not have taken away the first half dross.
What does this one poor performance tell us? Probably that this season is going to be like last season – inconsistent. The odd good performance mixed with rubbish. It will not be an easy watch. There isn’t exciting football to make up for the lack of quality. Goals will probably be few and far between. Certainly thus far there has not been goals from a more attacking midfield or any sign of one from Hansen and judging by yesterday I’m not holding my breath. I’m not in favour of changing the management but I can understand why some people would. Allegedly we have played well at times this season and there is no reason why we shouldn’t again… but surely it has to be soon and result in some positive results rather than more ‘bad luck’.We’ll win next week….. COYD

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