The Lounge

[onyadon]

After playing promotion candidates Rotherham, Ipswich Town and Sunderland in the opening five games, it will be another test for the Dons with Saturday’s home game against in-form Wycombe Wanderers. Gareth Ainsworth’s team are third after a WDWDW start to the campaign. The Chairboys are on the same points as Ipswich and Sunderland, so it will be a stiff challenge to break a win-less start to the season. Skipper Will Nightingale is expected to start after getting a run off the bench last week, which is just as well as Rod McDonald is out for between 6-8 weeks with a posterior cruciate ligament injury.The Dons have not lost to Wycombe at home in five league encounters and it was one of the five games I saw at the end of last season’s Great Escape where Joe Pigott scored a double in a 2-1 win. Old Dons favourites Bayo Akinfenwa and Darius Charles are expected to be in the Wycombe lineup. Yet again the Dons will be under pressure to score more than once to give their defence a chance to prevent a draw/loss, but it looks to be an ongoing problem for Wally Downes this season, unless something can materialise before the transfer window closes on Monday. Given the lack of a target man up front to work off the long balls, Dons fans have been wistful about this eventuating, but it appears a forlorn hope.

Tom Elliott the only senior pro who looked likely to move on but the #Millwall boss has admitted it is all quiet at the moment.

— Richard Cawley (@RichCawleySLP) August 29, 2019

Either we will be celebrating our first league win of the season or there will more dark murmurings of a long season ahead. As with all things associated with AFC Wimbledon, it won’t be easy…

[Colum]

I can’t get much enthusiasm for the Wycombe game. I can’t go because of a family event, and even though deep deep I’d prefer to be a Kingsmeadow, I can’t forsee anything other than another loss. Even with Will back. I so hope I’m wrong. The omens may be in our favour though. Last season our best home wins came when I wasn’t able to make it.

[Windlesham Don]

We need some form of result today with the trip to Asda:MK next week, but I feel it will be very difficult for us.

Ainsworth will have his ‘somersault with pike’ boys up for the match, so I expect the normal diving, cheating and official-influencing performance from them – it really is quite tedious to watch.

The problem for us is that Wycombe do what we should be doing, but they do it better. No star players, but they play as a unit, play for each other and play with energy. Currently we don’t.

If we can keep it tight at the back, with Will marshalling Kalambayi and Thomas, then we could nick something, but I doubt that Wycombe will over-commit and will be happy with a point.

A stalemate and a point would not be a bad outcome for us, as I am sure that Wally would like to halt the run of defeats before it starts eating away at morale. However, with our flimsy midfield and toothless attack I do not expect much from us in the attacking third and so a 0-0 may be the best we can hope for.

We desperately need Wordsworth back in the side, but a long term achilles niggle has now turned into a shoulder injury. We are now a month into the season and there has been no sign of our midfield leader, the situation is becoming serious.

Finally, the transfer window slams shut on Monday and it is obvious to anyone watching that our squad is simply not good enough. Perhaps the board are going to sit tight and hope that we can get to January without being cut adrift?
The danger in that strategy, of course, is a swift exit from the FA Cup and crowds ebbing away would leave the financial situation looking even worse by then.

Possibly our best hope is that the defence regains its solidity from last season, Reilly beds in to a midfield alongside a fit-again Wordsworth and Folivi begins to add goals to his promising build up play. But am I simply clutching at straws here..?

COYD!!!

[MacWomble]

It looks like Rob’s “dark murmerings” are the way the season is going to proceed. “Devoid of any quality”, according to the BBC. That’s a worry. The Great Escape aside, I think Wally should hit the panic button soon, before becoming a total Wally. Despite all the plaudits of how great Wally has done, from a distance I’ve never been especially convinced he brings much more than the gaffer Ardley did. It will be a tranfer for him for sure if “devoid of quality” becomes the norm and attendances start to slip away. Can’t see that much can be done about it, unless some talisman decides to join or re-join the club. After all, a season cannot be made through Nightingale alone. But, I guess Bury have done up one-quarter of a favour and Bolton look like making the one-half. That may well play in our favour. And what is a chairboy anyway? COYD.

[liamwimbo]

Yesterday’s game at home to Wycombe was the last of my annual trip to see the Dons.
Unfortunately the four games I’ve seen have resulted in two draws and two defeats.
It is still early days but the general mood is one of gloom and hard to foresee anything other than a season of struggle similar to last year. Most of the squad don’t look good enough for League One. The midfield lacks creativity and there is no cutting edge up front. Our best attacker The Pig looks a shadow of himself.
On the plus side, the defence looks OK and I have been particularly impressed by Paul Kalambayi and Guinness-Walker (who deservedly won MotM yesterday). So hopefully players for the future.
Let’s hope Wally and Glyn can turn things around, starting with a win over the unmentionables next weekend 🤞.

[Windlesham Don]

Saturday’s match day experience at KM was truly miserable – from the unstewarded free for all in the car park, through the attempts to purchase a beer in bars manned by inept and largely disinterested staff, and finally on to the unmitigated dross served up as football!

If the club is not careful crowds will drift away as the season progresses and the support desperately needed by a squad not good enough for this league will not be there.

I can accept that the budget has been cut and that this season is going to be a struggle on the pitch, what I cannot accept is having to put up with a bar performance that is even worse! The club must be losing thousands in revenue, just when we need every penny we can get.

Sadly, the movers and shakers at the club are either in the matchday hospitality or the Presidents Lounge and so do not have to suffer with the masses – yet another example of the disconnect between club and fans currently rife…

The match was awful, with neither side displaying enough guile to deserve a winner. Wycombe will not be up the top in the shake up, but at the moment I am struggling to identify sides to finish below us come the end of the season…

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