The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

A couple of points from me regarding Friday’s match.
Firstly, mental fragility. If we do go down then it will be largely due to our inability to see out games where we have taken the lead. Friday was the third home game on the spin we have taken a lead and failed to hold on to it. When Rovers started to take control from the hour mark there was no leadership on the field, no organisation. This is a real concern for the next three games where if we don’t have leaders on the pitch we are likely to be doomed to relegation.

Second, the management team. Wally and Glyn have rightly been praised to getting this squad to a point where we have a chance of avoiding relegation. However, on Friday IMO they were found wanting when the chips were down. From 60 minutes until the Rovers’ goal everyone watching could see the opposition gaining momentum. Everyone could see that our three central midfielders were losing their battles and losing their ‘legs’. Why on earth didn’t the order come out from the bench to go down injured and start breaking up the rhythm and momentum of the opposition? Graham Westley, the egotistical former Stevenage manager was renowned for telling players to go down so that he could gain a rest and re-jig tactics with his team. Gamesmanship, yes, but we on Friday we desperately needed to break up the game and halt the momentum of Rovers – we didn’t and we conceded a goal that everyone in the stadium could see coming.

Also, the substitutions were bizarre in the extreme and simply exacerbated our problems in trying to establish some control in the game. I like Folivi, but to bring him on when our only out ball was to ‘lud’ it forward was crazy. The kid is just that, a kid, and despite being talented high balls into him were simply gobbled up by the Rovers defence. Similarly with Connolly, who is only worth bringing on if he is going to be given space in which to run at the defence. Rovers immediately crowded the area in which he was operating (right wing) and gave him no room. Of course, the consequence was that Seddon had room on the left, but Ramsdale repeatedly failed to throw it out to him even when he had acres of space to run into the opposition half. We played into Rovers’ hands.
Finally, the ‘piece de resistance’ was the arrival of Tom Soares. We were being overrun in midfield, we desperately needed some energy and bite to arrest control and we had McLoughlin on the bench! What we got was Soares, lumbering and pointing and watching Rovers stroll around him…

My overall feeling from Friday is one of anger and frustration. The game was there to be seen out for three points, but we handed two of them back. We did the same against Accrington in the last home game.

Having got ourselves back into the race we are stumbling at the few last hurdles. We cannot afford any more slips. Four points may be enough, five points probably will be enough, but I’m not sure we have the guts, the drive and most of all the experience to see us over the line…

[onyadon]

One of the major moments of the season when the Dons snatched an equaliser through Steve Seddon deep in stoppage time to deny league leaders Luton Town of all the points. It signalled absolute mayhem in the away end. I was amongst them, 733 Dons fans singing their hearts out for the entire match and rewarded with this brinkmanship.

pic.twitter.com/C85cIluqV1

— Paul Lapraik (@ThisCharmingDon) April 24, 2019

In truth, Luton outplayed us for a great part of this game at dear old Kenilworth Road. They cut us open with their pace out wide and angles and passes. We needed Aaron Ramsdale to keep us in the contest, which he did leading up to Seddon’s header into an unguarded net.
The point leaves the Dons with 46 points with Wycombe (home) and Bradford (away) to play. Hopefully, we can win both, but home form is a concern and I wouldn’t like to go to Bradford on the final day needing all three points. But while the Dons struggle with attacking fluency, there is an unquenchable fighting team engendered by Wally and Glyn. The Dons are proving tough to beat, and the Great Escape is still on. Ramsdale and Will Nightingale have been impressive, Anthony Wordsworth was terrific against Luton. The spoilers of Wycombe will prove tough customers on Saturday. The Dons need a win to turbo-charge their battle against the drop. But if the Luton last gasp equaliser is anything to go by, the Dons are right in this. That equaliser last night will long live with me, absolute brilliant theatre and the Dons supporters were something else. The club is united to beat this, we can but hope.

[Windlesham Don]

I bought an iFollow match pass for Tuesday and it was money well spent (apart from the couple of years it will have taken off my life expectancy!)

Luton really did take us apart for large swathes of the game, with quick and incisive movement and passing. They were also dominant in both boxes.

Due to a combination of luck, last ditch defending and the magnificent Aaaron Ramsdale, we managed to hold out and as we got to the last 15 minutes you could sense the nerves creeping up on the league leaders.

The scenes at the end of the match were fantastic and the squad must be feeling confident going into tomorrow’s match. Losing Wagstaff and McDonald will be a blow. Although not a fans’ favourite, Wagstaff helps out Sibbick and his energy is not possessed by the other two central midfielders.

We need three points tomorrow to ensure that our fate remains in our own hands at Bradford. The crowd need to get behind the team from the start and ‘will’ the ball into the net. We need a referee who does not want to be the star of the show and assistants who are up with the game. Possibly most of all we need the ball to run for us…

COYD!

[MacWomble]

Were you at the Wycombe game, Rob? Wow!

[onyadon]

What a position to be in leading into the final game of the season: Wimbledon require at least one point to beat the drop at Bradford City on Saturday. The Dons emerged from 189 days in the bottom four to climb to 19th after a gritty 2-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers at KM last Saturday. A double from Joe Pigott (he also missed a penalty) was enough to earn the Dons a crucial three points and put their fate firmly in their hands. This has been some turnaround by Wimbledon under Wally and Glyn. They are clearly one of the form teams in L1 and they have proved hard to beat.

It's simply been night and day, a season of two distinct halves, 🎶Wally's at the wheel🎶 https://t.co/DAfgnYPUTy

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) April 28, 2019

I’ve watched the last four games and while the Dons have had to struggle at times, importantly, their team spirit was unquenchable. Aaron Ramsdale has been sensational in goal, Will Nightingale has marshalled the young backline, Anthony Wordsworth has impressed in midfield and James Hanson and Pigott have worked hard up front. This is not a good Wimbledon team by any stretch, there is little quality, the team battle to hold on to possession, but they have spirit and will to survive by the bucket load.

Joe Pigott’s 15 goals have won 19 points for AFC Wimbledon in League One this season; two more than any other player in the division. 🐷 #FeedThePig #AFCWimbledon #AFCW #COYD pic.twitter.com/Zg8S1EZdvY

— Arash Rezai (@rezla) April 30, 2019

I stress the Dons have not completed the Great Escape yet, mathematically they go can still go down if they lose at already relegated Bradford and results elsewhere go against them. But Wally and Glyn are pushing this team to reach their potential. It’s been a magnificent turnaround after the final grim days under Neal Ardley. Bradford players will be playing for contracts under a new manager, don’t take this as a given, but I rather be in Wimbledon’s position on the final day than the teams below them. I also was thrilled to get an invite by Dons great Ian Cooke at the prematch hospitality and talk with him at length. Cookie has an incredible memory of games in his long career and told me he was once alongside a callow Wally Downes in Wimbledon reserves at the tailend of his career and was taken by the youngster’s cockiness and outspokenness during the games. and now Wally is Wimbledon manager, and a very influential one at that. Bring on Saturday.

[Singapore Don]

What a high this season is ending on after the misery of the lows of the autumn and winter. Luton and Wycombe were such fillips for the confidence and positivity brimming around the club now – it was so great to be able to share those moments of euphoric delirium with Rob. I trust you’ve recovered and will see you for more of the same hopefully at Bradford on Saturday!

I got a close up feel for just how positive the mood is in the playing camp when I went to the shirt sponsors’ dinner at KM last night. It was a real family affair, the players at ease and chatting happily with the fan sponsors throughout the evening. I spoke individually to all nineteen players who were there (my sponsored shirt player was missing, but being Jake Jervis I guess no surprises there!). Each and every player was calm, relaxed, happy, positive, and not at all worried about Saturday’s game. This wasn’t complacency. Wally just seems to have converted them to believe in themselves, and to be as one and work together. There was such a strong corps d’esprit in the player ranks, a real togetherness that was uplifting to see. Many of the players were so eloquent and thoughtful: I was particularly impressed by Joe Pigott (more to follow), Scott Wagstaff, Kwesi Appiah, Andy Barcham, and Will Nightingale. Aaron Ramsdale and Steve Seddon were delightful.

It was a superb evening which made me feel even prouder than ever to call this club my own. It felt like a family affair, no airs and graces, everyone chatting, laughing and eating together as if you were round the family dinner table. Given Jervis was absent, I was lucky enough to be sat on the Joe Pigott table, and talked to him at length throughout the meal and evening. What an excellent young man: thoughtful, intelligent, considerate and – like so many of the other players I spoke to over the course of the evening – a thoroughly decent and upstanding ambassador for our club. We of course made sure that he was well fed, so rest assured the Pig was fed….and we can hope for the rest of the song to play out on Saturday! He has the last line too, as he contemplated the choice between beef and pork on offer, giving me the quote of the night: “The ironic thing is I don’t like pork”!

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