The Lounge

[Tooting Womble]

Good threads on Saturday’s game have pushed me into contributing my thoughts….
Despite the loss felt aok when the FT whistle blew.
Enjoyed the second half…first half the only good bits that I remember were Tzanev’s point blank save and Kalambyi’s great turn and sprint into midfield. He’s could become a great player; similar too but probably better than Nightingale due to being better on the deck and in tight situations such as the one mentioned above. IMO it could explain why the latter has been pushed into midfield giving PK the responsibility to marshal the defence. There seemed to be quite a few breaks in the first half too that weren’t capitalised on, mainly by Folivi, who has good pace but doesn’t have enough of an eye for goal, currently with a tendency to head for the left hand corner rather than for the opposition’s net.
For 10/15 minutes after we scored, we were great and they were rocking. Their goal came after our energy levels started to reduce. It was a shame and a draw would have been a fairer result.

[onyadon]

The Dons are off to Fleetwood Town for their first away match of the season with Wally Downes urging his team to carry on the resilient form of the second half in the opening 2-1 defeat to Rotherham. Wimbledon have a tough start to the season: Accrington Stanley are next at home followed by back-to-back away games at promotion fancies Sunderland and Ipswich Town, so a point would be welcome at Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town. The Dons have a good record at Highbury: 2W 3D 1L so it’s definitely within the scope of the team to get something, but it will need to be a strong disciplined performance for all the game.
Wally is trying to keep the players on notice early in the season..

“There is no point us going 1-0 down and thinking, ‘now we have to pull our fingers out’ and it’s no good us getting on a bad run and being down the bottom of the league. I’ve said to the team that we have to start the season strong and finish the season strong. It’s no good waiting for bad things to happen before we decide to start playing. We’ve got to put ourselves under pressure at 0-0, start the season with a blank sheet and have that pressure of succeeding. The onus is on us as a group to be successful.

And thanks for those who responded to my plea to regenerate the WDSA Forum and for those ‘lurking’ what about dipping your toes in the water and sharing your thoughts as well!!

[MacWomble]

My bad, but I had not realised that we are up against MK Dons this Tuesday in the League Cup. Perhaps not the best time to meet them (when is?), but a win would install some fight in the team surely? I have no idea where Fleetwood is, and have some vision of a terrible long journey to some northern town that reached its heyday in 1870. I’m always puzzled that teams actually win away from home, when they have to sit on a bus, bored to tears, playing cards, listening to some drone, or planning the night out, and then turn up at some god-forsaken, sodden, hellhole of a ground that does nothing more than remind them of why they choose to live in the capital. Remarkable. Tuesday’s the game to kick the season off with a drab 1-1.

[Windlesham Don]

The season is barely a week old, but the writing is firmly on the wall for us. A threadbare squad is already being hampered by injuries throughout its spine.

A loanee keeper with a longstanding groin issue, a captain cursed with a body not up to his will (no pun intended) and a midfield talisman who has mysteriously developed an injury that needs to be managed.

Add to these a toothless attack, with a loanee who seems to have shot-phobia and the roadmap of struggle is complete.

We have no funds and so any strengthening will need to be via further loans of inexperienced youth teamers.

On the bright side we may only need to find two sides worse than us. Bury and Bolton are looking like basket cases already.

Next Saturday is already an important match for us (I’m not even bothered with Tuesday’s inconvenience), as failure to pick up anything would leave us pointless facing horrendous trips to Ipswich and Sunderland in the following week.

Only now is it dawning how important last season’s departing players were. Rambo is now a Premier League keeper, Seddon is a Championship starter and even Hanson gave us a physicality now missing.

Wally seems to have a problem with Wagstaff, which left us with Pinnock in central midfield yesterday, which doesn’t say much for the abilities of McLoughlin. Reilly, Hartigan and Pinnock is a unit simply not good enough for League 1.

In defence, the absence of Nightingale left us with Thomas and McDonald alongside Kalambayi – a 20 year old has become our lynchpin as the other two are both liable to make basic mistakes. However promising Walker-Guinness may be his experience stretches to the Ryman league and he will make mistakes.

Apologies for this downbeat assessment, but in my view we are short of quality throughout our squad. This season, perhaps more than any other, we will need the famous Womble underdog spirit to get us through. We will also need patient support from us fans.

Fortunately, I have no time to write about the stadium funding and the overnight woes of Seedrs…

[Colum]

Two matches in and what have we learnt that we didn’t already know? Nothing. Nada. Bugger all. If there was any early season optimism, it must surely have dissipated by now. This will be another long and hard season.

I’m trying hard not to be too negative about those who’ve played in the games so far, but the threadbare nature of our squad is being laid bare. Will is going to have a scan on his knee, and Dons everywhere are hoping it is not a repeat of his old injury. Poor Nik Tzanev has done OK, but is nowhere near the finished article. Up front Appiah is one of our front two, which says a lot. Yes he scored, but he doesn’t put nearly as much effort in.

The plus points are that we are scoring goals, and playing some good football for 45 minutes. The trouble is, if we continue to lose games the team spirit of last season could soon wear thin. Then Wally and Glyn will really have a job on their hands.

[Devon Womble]

A frustrating start. However, a sudden spate of injuries has, I think, done more damage to our performances than we might believe.
The one thing I don’t get, especially now we have so many key injuries, is why WD has not put Waggy out there. Whether he dislikes him or not, we need a wise head on the pitch and Waggy has proven consistently to be the one to provide it. e.g. I get a strong sense that he would have picked up Fleetwood’s opening goalscorer the moment he came on the pitch, as it was, nobody did and we paid the price. I hope WD realises this and moves to get over whatever it is that has prevented Waggy’s appearance so far.
As for the Pig being picked for Captain, perhaps that was a little political. I’m quite sure he will be plucked from our squad by a club with a budget soon enough so why not let him think he could be a Captain?
Sigh, two games in and the burden of being a Dons fan is already weighing heavily on the shoulders.
Ah well… they say one should never judge the season until we are ten games into it, but with our failings this season appearing to be a repeat of last season’s problems, I have to ask the question… just why does it feel like the season’s half over already?

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