The Lounge

[Colum]

Wishing all Wombles down under, up and over, or just in SW19 a peaceful and happy Christmas. Here’s to a fundraising effort to end all fundraising efforts in 2020.

…and hoping any Wombles in the Sydney area aren’t too badly affected by the 40 degree temperatures and bush fires. Climate change? What climate change?

[MacWomble]

Merry Christmas everyone. A great result yesterday. We are eight points ahead of where we were last season. We have a promising new manager. Our home and away attendance is up. And, given our penchance for relying on one striker to get most of the goals, it seems that even this is being delivered. As for the stadium, I’ll need to read more, but I do find it odd that a no outside investment stance would be taken. It kind-of goes against how the world works. I wonder if all our houses were bought without outside investment. Everything over a certain value has outside investment.

[onyadon]

That was a nice little surprise for Christmas, wasn’t it? Only the Dons’ second win in eight visits to the Mem and only their second away league win of the season at 6th-placed Bristol Rovers.

Savour it.. we don't win that often at The Mem @Official_BRFC #AFCwimbledon pic.twitter.com/wb0GPX7b14

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) December 27, 2019

Wimbledon came from behind to win, Pigott and Forss getting the second-half goals. Great to see Forss keep scoring during his loan spell, but can’t help but feel a little melancholy at the thought he may have just one more game for us (against Oxford United at KM on Saturday) before the opening of the transfer window, and the strong likelihood that he will be recalled by Brentford or shipped off to another club. Forss has been galvanising for the Dons.

Marcus Forss has scored 11 goals in 15 league appearances since joining #afcwimbledon in September, more than Kwesi Appiah who has scored 10 goals in 54 apps since joining permanently in July 2017. Real Championship quality #afcw #maytheforssbewithyou #feeltheforss #forssofnature pic.twitter.com/n4i01FXVT9

— Arash Rezai (@rezla) December 26, 2019

The thought of just Pigott and one other leading the Dons line for the rest of the season frankly fills me with dread. I am not expecting the Dons to be bringing many (if any) reinforcements in during the transfer window, given the club finances and the uncertainty over the ongoing Plough Lane funding.
An interesting stat for the Dons team under Glyn Hodges. They are the youngest team in L1.

Wimbledon v Bristol Rovers saw the youngest average XI in League One this season versus the oldest. Interesting to see Bolton dropping down the table now they've got more "experienced" players. #afcw #AFCWimbledon pic.twitter.com/VlgVnC8PPb

— Arash Rezai (@rezla) December 26, 2019

Home-grown midfielder Jack ‘Rudi’ Rudoni made his full first team debut at Bristol Rovers and so far this season there have been nine players 21 or under to start this campaign. That’s one of the big pluses for me this season…

Significant transition going on in the #afcwimbledon squad, either enforced or intended, it will reap dividends down the track… https://t.co/Nv3Xgkj8ZJ

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) December 26, 2019

[Windlesham Don]

Still keeping my fingers crossed for all you guys living in blaze stricken areas – hang in there!!

This afternoon we start the new year with a biggie. Southend have been dreadful this season (as proven by us netting 4 times at their place) but they have started to improve in the last few matches, so I am expecting another tough encounter.

Our opponents had a rest on Sunday and so they will be fresher than us. They have been scoring freely, but defensively they have been leaking goals all season. We will need to be on it from the start and keep a team with little confidence under the cosh.

Unsurprisingly there is no sign of Wordsworth or Wagstaff yet and so we will need to go with the same inexperienced line up – assuming that Forss is not recalled by Brentford, of course. There is an injury concern over Terrell Thomas, who had to come off on Sunday, and with the likelihood that Delaney will have been recalled by Rochdale (foolish of them if they don’t) we could be particularly weak in the heart of defence.

Breaths will be held waiting for the starting XI today…

Although we should be targeting a win today, I believe that this match will be tougher than many expect. I’m going for a score draw, which would not please many fans, but at least would keep Southend from making up any ground…

COYD!!

[MacWomble]

A good result against Peterborough, a team I have always measured ourselves against – benchmark team of sorts. Let’s hope the new year continues the change in fortunes on the field for AFC.

[Colum]

Peterborough was one of those games. They had LOADS of possession but failed to do much with it. Restricted to long range pot shots, their first real chance came after an hour had elapsed. By comparison we had a few gilt edged chances that their keeper did well to keep out.

It was good to see Mr Toney get his comeuppance. Having spent most of the first 30 minutes trying unsuccessfully to get the better of our defence, he resorted to throwing himself to the ground and then remonstrating with the referee when told to get up. Just quite why it took the ref until the 85th minute to show him the red card is a mystery.

One word on Mads Bech Sørensen first Womble appearance; outstanding. A deserved MOTM performance. It could only be improved if his glancing header from a corner had been slightly better directed away from their keeper.

But back to Ivan Toney. There he was remonstrating on the Quest TV show about the referee and complaining that he didn’t give them a penalty. Strange that he failed to mention that their only real chance of the game game after Piggott was clearly fouled on the edge of their penalty area. Yes the ref wasn’t great, but it is clear Ivan’s blinkered vision is strong.

So a hard fought win, but we’ll take it. The last 10 minutes we looked tired and devoid of ideas. It is clear that we’re a team who can’t afford to sit back and defend. We do that at our peril.

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