The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

So it appears from last night’s Meet the Manager session that Wally and Glyn can ‘talk the talk’. They appear to be singing off the same hymn sheet as many of us with their initial ideas.

The defence needs to be drilled on the training ground so that we stop giving away stupid goals – we need a few clean sheets.

We need to start picking up results before the end of the Christmas period.

Some of the loanees need to be returned (I’d say all bar one, personally) and we need to recruit some new players. There appears to be some funds for this.

So the talking of the talk was good, we now need to see the walking of the walk.

Anything from Saturday’s trip to The Valley will be a bonus, with Charlton currently on a superb run. But starting with the trip to Wycombe and through the Christmas period we have some matches where we need to start picking up results (and not just scraped draws, we need wins as well).

Over the next couple of weeks Wally and Glyn will have some time to work with the squad. We will need to see the team demonstrate some tangible improvement by Christmas, or we will be staring down the barrel of relegation.

COYD!!

[onyadon]

Think we can take it as read Wally will be doing some shopping in the transfer window and expect a substantial team overhaul with many, if not all, the loan players being returned to their parent clubs. Maybe the club might also try to offload Deji Oshilaja to raise some much needed cash for recruitment. The 0-2 defeat at Charlton more or less would have finished Wally’s talk of giving the current squad every chance to press their claims. Basically, so many of the current squad, brought together by Neal Ardley, are plainly not up to the job. In a few weeks expect Wally/Glyn to bring in some reinforcements. Suspect they already have a couple of targets lined up. The restructure can’t come soon enough for fed-up Dons fans.

[Cape Cod Womble]

Felt it was like the tipping point on Saturday. In atrocious conditions, AFC couldn’t take advantage of Charlton being a player short inside the first minute and then put ten behind the ball. The only ray of right came when Tyler Burey appeared and took on players with a fearless approach that has been completely foreign this season. The support got behind him which was great and took the focus off fighting amongst ourselves.

What a season you couldn’t script it.

[Singapore Don]

Saturday felt like the nadir of our existence as AFC Wimbledon. The team was as atrocious as the weather. No fight, no spirit, gutless, clueless – it was embarrassing, our 11 men being completely outplayed and out-thought by their 10 for half an hour. This was as bad, if not worse, than anything we saw under Neal Ardley.

The hoped for, if not much heralded, new manager bounce
has failed to materialise. Yes, yes, WD needs time to shape a team in his own mould before he can be properly judged. But first impressions are not great. Why did he not change the game plan when Charlton went down to ten after less than a minute? He said there didn’t seem any need to change his game plan. That appeared plain wrong. To play a sole striker against three defenders seemed to miss a trick. Surely we should have put Barcham up front as well to harry their three man defence? Instead, they looked completely comfortable at the back just shepherding our lone Pinnock. Putting our ten men behind the ball was never going to work.

Then there was the half time opportunity to blast a rocket up the players and get them fired up for a real battle in the second half. Any half time team talk failed to deliver: there was no more motivation, passion or fight than in the first half. Only Tyler Burey coming on seemed to inject any life in to our play. Too little too late.

But what worried me most was WD’s post match interview. It was flat and lifeless, a mirror of the performance we had just watched out on the playing field. Where was the anger, the frustration, the disgruntlement at a shockingly bad performance? Instead, his verdict was that there was little to chose between the two teams. WD really must have been watching a different game, I’ve never heard such a rose tinted spectacled summary of the dross on show. Yes he may need to keep players on board until he can release them, so may have wanted to go easy on them. But that didn’t stop Simon Bassey letting loose with his anger at the terrible performance after one of his games in charge. SB’s brutal honesty was refreshing and effective. I thought I was going to hear a similarly honest and brutal assessment by WD after Charlton. The players need to be told their performances are unacceptable. After the abject display we fans had to endure in the freezing, pouring rain, it was a time not to mince words. Like any fight on the pitch, that failed to happen.

Clearly these are early days in WD’s managerial reign, and we can only hope that he will improve as he brings in his own players. I really wish him the very best and hope he can turn things round. But this feels like an existential point in our club’s history, and the signs on and off the field after Saturday’s defeat really are ominous. If there is any light at the end of the tunnel, right now it is but the merest flicker – dark days indeed.

[Windlesham Don]

Sadly I have to agree, Singapore. No new manager bounce for us, just the normal gutless and spineless performance. Wally doesn’t seem to be showing the same passion as a manager that characterised his playing days.

This team is a bunch of zombies, shuffling towards League 2. It needs massive changes in personnel to turn things around, more changes than can be introduced in a single transfer window, I fear.

Most of the players should be ashamed of themselves…

[Colum]

I can understand the frustration to those fans who went to Charlton, but I can also understand Wally’s tactics. I may not agree with them though.

He knows he’s in a desperate situation, therefore it is safety first. “Don’t get beat” is his mantra, and the rest can follow. He needs every point he can get, and being unadventurous will do if we scrap the odd point or two before the transfer window opens.

Plus we didn’t have any recognised striker in the squad. This highlights the fragility in the squad, and added to the increasing list of injured and suspended players, this probably confirmed his thinking.

I have to say Taylor took his goal well. The way he cut across the defender, is something they’ve obviously worked on with him at Charlton. It’s a shame we didn’t do that!

[Author]

Posts