The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

There definitely seemed to be a change of feeling on Tuesday, both on the pitch and in the crowd. It was confidence, a feeling that we WOULD make the playoffs, rather than COULD make them and the travelling army numbering just shy of 1000 seemed to feel it (once Bas had cleared of the line, of course!)

The Daggers played some pretty football, but their defence was woeful and we really should have turned 2-0 into 3 or 4 in the final 15 minutes.

Tomorrow will be a test, but I agree with Rob when he draws comparisons with the Conference promotion season. For now at least we have the momentum…

[rob]

Another narrow win making it 5 wins in a row and a third consecutive clean sheet. This is definitely a change from previous campaigns. A degree of consistency especially since Xmas. Praise must go to the manager who seems to have made progress himself this season. This is surely a pointer to other clubs who rarely give managers time to prove themselves. The Dons are now a good league 2 team. The key for me is the central spine. Robinson, reeves/Bulman and Taylor. The playoffs are close. Hopefully this will be confirmed on Tuesday. promotion is probably unlikely but isn’t it good to be thinking about it? I’m in Poland for the play off final?!?!? Gutted! COYD

[Windlesham Don]

I thought that yesterday would be a test, but despite the 1-0 score line it was another comfortable performance. We should have been 2 or 3 up at half time, and despite some huffing and puffing in the second half Orient offered little in the way of goal threat. Once again Robbo and Darius were imperious in the heart of defence and 3 goals conceded in their 6 games together tells a story.

On to Tuesday and another mouth watering fixture against Pompey. Curiously I am confident, as Pompey will not be used to playing on a cabbage patch like KM and their minds may still be coming to terms with missing out on an automatic promotion place.

If we manage to take 3 points on Tuesday and rubber stamp our place in the playoffs, then I doubt that any other team will be looking forward to playing us. Indeed, if we can maintain our momentum into the playoffs, the fact that all the other teams will enter the matches on the ‘downer’ of missing out on automatic promotion may play into our hands.

However, just to end this post on a cautionary note, we need to be more clinical in front of goal if the season is to end on the highest of high notes. In my opinion we are missing too many chances…

COYD!!

[onyadon]

The Dons clinched their play-off spot with a game left on the back of a late Plymouth Argyle equaliser to kill off Cambridge’s remote mathematical bid to overhaul Wimbledon in 7th place. So now we have next weekend’s final regular season home game against Newport County to tune up for a home two-leg semi-final against either Accrington Stanley, Oxford United or Bristol Rovers a few days afterwards. The Dons have a losing record against all three, but I don’t think anyone of us is perturbed at the prospect of going into the play-offs as the underdog. Get past whoever it is and Wimbledon are off to Wembley for the promotion final, likely against either Portsmouth or Plymouth Argyle. It’s a mouth-watering prospect, it’s definitely an exciting time and it could be 28 years after our last trip to Wembley for a certain final! This has been a fabulous season for the Dons by any measure…

[onyadon]

So Accrington Stanley stand between the Dons and a place in the Wembley play-off final. It will be a daunting task over two legs, but there are a couple of things that offer hope. The Dons won at Accy 4-3 last October and had a scoreless draw at home: so they are unbeaten against them this season! Accy will be feeling down after missing out on an automatic promotion spot in a final day 0-0 draw with Stevenage at home. Manager John Coleman admitted as much when he told reporters: “It’s gonna be a big job to pick the players up. I am hurting at the moment, and the players are. My fears came home to roost as I felt some people, not the players, felt we were up. It has been a great season but I have been in football long enough to know it can be cruel and it can be brilliant. It was brilliant last week at Wycombe but cruel today.” In contrast Neal Ardley had nothing to lose this weekend and put most of his key players in cotton-wool. He made eight changes yet still came away with a 1-0 win over Newport County. The Dons are in their best possible shape, they have a solid core of players with experience in these situations and most of our top players will have had two weeks off by the time of the home play-off leg comes around on May 14 (and a significant date in Wimbledon folklore). AFC Wimbledon have a good record in play-offs (remember Staines Town in the Rymans Premier and of course, Luton Town in the Manchester final to get into the Football League under Terry Brown. The Dons also won a pressure game under Neal Ardley to beat Fleetwood Town 2-1 and stay up on the final day in 2013. So there are reasons to be optimistic, yet this will be a tough two games coming up and it will be crucial for the Dons to set it up with a strong home performance where they could be vulnerable. A long trip to Accrington will then decide the Dons fate. It’s an exciting postscript to a fabulous season. COYD!!

[Windlesham Don]

So here we go into our bonus fixtures! The atmosphere at KM tonight should be good, with plenty of time for liquid refreshment before kick off!

I hope all antipodean Wombles have access to the Sky Sports coverage – but don’t expect a free-flowing match, the pitch is poor and there will be too much tension for much decent football to be seen. IMO it will be night to avoid silly mistakes and to keep the ball in the opposition half. Unsurprisingly Accy have returned most of their allocation, so the opportunity to create an atmosphere to lift the players from all 4 sides of the ground is there for us supporters.

‘Red teaming’ our side and tactics to provide a contrarian view, I believe that John Coleman will concentrate on nullifying Lyle Taylor (baby) – our goal threat is virtually non-existent if he does not score. Also, I feel that they will raid down our wings, especially targeting Callum Kennedy at LB. Whoever is selected in wide midfield (and there may be some injury issues in these positions) will be fragile defensively and I suspect Kennedy/Barcham or Kennedy/Rigg will be targeted.

IMO NA will need to counter these weaknesses for us to progress. We also need to stop the service to Windass and Key – these are quality players at League 2 level and we need to keep them quiet.

Plus points for us is that the centre of defence is looking solid and Roos has become more confident over the last few matches after a dodgy spell. IMO it is important that Elliot plays and that he embraces the occasion – he can be unplayable, but I do feel that he still has confidence issues. He needs a few good touches early on and he needs to bully the Accy CBs.

Finally, we need to be far more clinical in front of goal than we have been recently. Over the next two matches we cannot afford to miss 10 chances for every one that hits the back of the net.

Finally, IMO the entire tie is a flip of a coin and may come down to a mistake, a piece of brilliance, luck or, God forbid the performance of the man in black.

IMO the most likely outcome is a goalless draw, with the stress rolling on to Wednesday…

COYD!!

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