The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

Great day to be a Womble! Outplayed the diving, cheating and whinging anti-football team that is Wycombe. Throat very sore through screaming at the opposition’s cynical cheating and at the ref (both of them) being completely incompetent. Yet again Wycombe played the officials as much as they played us – pathetic to watch and just as pathetic as the ref(s) fell for it (yet again).

But justice was served as a dominant performance was rewarded with a fully deserved 3 points. NA finally drafted Tom Elliott back into the starting XI and played 4-3-3, thankfully abandoning the Taylor/Murphy twosome up front. With Taylor and Murphy free to make runs off Elliott’s aerial dominance, we exerted a strangle hold which we very rarely released. As well as scoring, we hit the bar twice and their (unpleasantly gobby) keeper made one excellent save before Wycombe’s first shot on target brought them level.

But a nailed on penalty, after which only the ref can know why the Wycombe offender didn’t even get a yellow card, despite denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, returned the natural order.

838 travelling fans made a superb noise and we have now, with one good performance forced ourselves back into the playoff mix. Sadly, there is probably only one place still up for grabs with about 5 teams going for it, but it is going to be as much down to ‘bottle’ as ability from here on in.

Down to Devon next Saturday for what will undoubtedly be more of a footballing contest than today’s war. One thing for certain in my mind is that Taylor and Elliott must start. Whether NA is bold enough to go 4-3-3 again to get Murphy into the starting XI is a big call – one I am happy not to be making…

COYD!!

[onyadon]

At 1.51pts per game I estimate the Dons could finish with 70 points if they maintain that average over the closing seven games. But will it be enough to make the playoffs? An interesting but less pressing(!) stat is that the Dons are currently 30 points ABOVE the relegation zone occupied by York City and Daggers .. just shows you how far the club has progressed this season, in that we’ve hardly mentioned the ‘R’ word this campaign.. Your thoughts, chaps?

[Devon Womble]

Well, many of us hoped for a play-off place at the beginning of the season and there is no doubt we have a team with the ability to achieve it. However, IMHO, there are still some weaknesses we have to overcome if we are to be a force in League One, or even a League Two promotion candidate next season.

These weaknesses (IMHO), are:
1> Our persistant inability to beat the bottom clubs. As an aside, the defeat at Hartlepool, I have a bad feeling, will be the difference between 7th and also ran this season.
2> NA is still, more often than not, subbing way too late in the game; on which point you have to wonder if Azeez’s failure to score saturday from chances he has proven he can recently, are simply because he feels his ten minute cameos are all he has in which to prove himself to NA. He certainly plays better the longer he gets on the pitch.
3> Although a loanee, I’m not 100% convinced Roos is a better goalkeeper than Shea. Although he commands the box which Shea rarely did, he seems to have made just as many ‘unforced’ errors as Shea, and does seem slower to get down in the box than Shea… witness the balls that have got past him.

All things considered though, I do take some positives from our season… (surprise, surprise). Namely:
4> That our preferred formation is 4-3-3 (or at least it is from the players perspective!);
5> Our forwards are arguably the best in league two,
6> Our defensive ability is a far cry from what it was 12 months ago… even allowing for the score of injuries.

Whatever the outcome of the season, the closed season I think will be one of the most fascinating we’ve had…
Can NA keep Taylor and Elliot? Just how much longer can Bulman and Fuller maintain their stamina? Will our amazing youth players finally kick a ball on the pitch on a Saturday afternoon?
Perhaps the only certainties will be a farewell for the Beast, and a contract extension for NA… the latter of which I humbly confess I would have scoffed at six months ago!

[Windlesham Don]

I can’t imagine that 70 points will be enough, especially with 5 or 6 teams still fighting over a single playoff place. My guess is somewhere between 72 and 74 points will be required. The good thing is that at the end of the season you want to be playing teams with nothing to play for and so IF our attitude is right and IF we don’t screw up at the back and IF we don’t squander chance after chance in front of goal, then the forthcoming games against Daggers, Newport, Crawley and Stevenage should be eminently winnable. Out of those If feel that Stevenage will be the toughest as it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for us in the past. There is no reason why we can’t get 4 wins from the last 7 fixtures – chuck in a draw or two and 72 or 73 points may just be good enough to get us over the line.
In my view the 3 key ‘marginal’ games where we have to perform are Plymouth on Saturday (good past record), Orient at KM and Stevenage at the Lamex. Four points or more from these and we have a great chance of being two matches from Wembley!! :o)

[MacWomble]

Yes, it almost looks like the Dons are good enough to make a good fight of a play-off place. Who would have thought that possible one year ago. This is a season where, as you point out, we have heard scant few utterances of the R-word and very few criticisms of The Gaffer. But perhaps we have reached our level under the current structure. This may be as good as The Gaffer can get us. But we wont know until next year, so the management structure are saved for a few more pay days. So, next season, does this mean that we will be content to attain a repeat of this season (and remain safe and sound until SW19 is built by a hod carrier like Vinnie Jones), or does it mean that the fans’ expectations have been raised and there will be howls of Gaffer Out if we do not make the Play-offs next season? Ah well, as long as the Toon Army get relegated and Leicester win the Premiership, then it has been a good season for fitba in Blighty. And what is this? It looks like Mr K Robinson’s M K Dons are heading back in our direction. They have a massive six pointer at home to Rotherham this weekend. Don’t you just love all these shit teams that we never used to have to play in the Crazy Days. Bring back Robbie Earle and Efan Ekoku.

[hollpoll]

Having just received the latest issue of Wombles Downunder (thanks Rob) my eyes fell upon the article written by Trevor Pearce. I object strongly to the opening paragraph of his article which is blatantly political and has no place in a newsletter such as ours, his opinions are so far to the left he should be whisked back to the USSR of the 1950’s. We are all angry at whats happened and I have no problem with most of the article but I never thought I would read anything of this nature in Wombles Downunder. To be honest I feel he should retract the opening paragraph and resubmit the article in a less controversial political tone.

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