The Lounge

[liamwimbo]

Although things in the world aren’t great at the moment, we can at least enjoy the developments around AFC.
An unbeaten start to the season with an excellent win at Fleetwood on the weekend. Didn’t get to see it myself, but everyone I’ve talked to says it was well deserved. Apart from the 3 points, it was good to get a clean sheet.

More importantly from a long term point of view, it seems New Plough Lane will be operational from 3rd November. Great news, but tempered by the fact that it will be without fans.

We may have to wait until March for crowds to attend matches. From a selfish perspective, it gives us Australian based fans a chance to be there, but I reckon that is wishful thinking?

Looking forward to a better, and less stressful, season than last year. Especially if Franchise get relegated 🤞😄

[Windlesham Don]

It has been an excellent start to the season. Recruitment looks to have been the best in several seasons, the new ground is looking magnificent and will be hosting matches from November and the side is unbeaten (over 90 minutes) over the first 6 games of the season.
I feel that tomorrow is important to give us a true feel of where this squad is relative to the rest of the league. Five points from the first 3 league matches has been satisfactory, but I don’t feel that any of the matches so far has given us a true feeling for how good this squad is. All of the games could have been won, but equally with some bad luck we could have lost the lot.
Accrington are a lower middle of the table club, so they will provide a test that we should be looking to pass if we are going to avoid our normal end of season anxiety.
The squad looks to be strong and well covered in all positions. The continued absence of Ollie Palmer is disappointing, but fortunately Pigs and Ryan Longman seem to have formed an understanding.
Two new signings have fitted in well – Woodyard is the ‘ratter’ we’ve been looking for since the departure of Dannie Bulman. Chislett seems to have made the step up from the National league without trouble. These two have helped a midfield that has struggled since we reached this league.
Not much has been seen of Palmer, Alexander and Csoka as yet.
The loanees have also fitted into the squad with ease. Nothing much needs to said about Steve Seddon, the boy is class at this level. Connal Trueman received some early stick from fans (who only seem to accept keepers if they are up to the standard of Rambo), but his clean sheet at Fleetwood and the arrival of his mate from Birmingham will help his confidence.
Ryan Longman has added class and intelligence to our front line and has already built a relationship with Pigs.
Oksanen had not featured until Saturday, but his league debut was excellent, as he combined with Woodyard to snuff out a talented Fleetwood midfield. Whether he will play tomorrow, or whether Glyn will opt for the more attacking choice of Chislett will be interesting to witness.
Glyn also seems to have improved some of last season’s squad – McLoughlin seems to have grown into his role as right wing back, Reilly has grown in confidence with Woodyard alongside him. Pigs has also started the season with confidence.
So on to tomorrow and a test of our progress this season. No score prediction from me, but I will be hoping for a performance where we can say that we deserved the three points.

COYD!!

[Windlesham Don]

Unfortunately Saturday wound the clock back to the bad old days of the last two seasons. Despite going a goal up I never felt that we were in control of the game. The midfield trio from the Fleetwood game never seemed to impose themselves on the match and once again the central defence looked shaky, as we allowed Stanley regular opportunities to put crosses into our box.

It was from a cross that Stanley got their equaliser – failure to win cleanly the initial header allowed the ball to fall in the box and then we were second best to react as the ball was crashed into the roof of the net. Before we had a chance to reset we were 2-1 down, with a couple of weak attempts at blocking a shot allowing the ball to sneak into the bottom corner.

At half time, IMO we should have brought on Chislett to give the opposition more to think about, but once again Glyn was indecisive with his substitutions (until the inevitable arrival of Hartigan of course…)

In the second half we provided some huff and puff, but without causing Stanley many problems. Desperation in the last 15 minutes produced a couple of chances – a pile driver from McLoughlin would have equalised if our luck had been in, but it wasn’t and Longman’s poor attempt at the rebound summed up our day.

Disappointingly, the second half saw us reverting to type and slinging long balls towards the Pig, who after a promising start spent the second half in his defender’s pocket. Chislett was brought on too late to influence the game and Hartigan simply did what Hartigan does – play neat sideways passes when vision and accuracy was needed.

If we are to fulfil the promise of the first few matches of the season, then Glyn needs to instil some belief in this squad of players. On Saturday they were too comfortable kicking the ball long and hoping that the Pig could come up with something. The lack of belief caused the movement off the ball to stop and the passes to become robotic rather than visionary. The defence needs to become stronger and better drilled, and the wingbacks need to work harder at stopping crosses coming into our box.

The next few fixtures could be key to the rest of the season. The trip to Swindon will be difficult as they will be on a high from last season’s promotion. Shrewsbury is another home game where we must look to pick up three points, or face another relegation threatened season. We need some points on the board from these two matches before a couple of tough trips to Hull and one of our bogey grounds, Burton.

COYD!!

[onyadon]

Just what can you say … #PloughLane is looking absolutely magnificent a month out from staging #AFCWimbledon games… pic.twitter.com/vznziFV8YH

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) October 5, 2020

[Windlesham Don]

An important match for the boys today after a poor couple of performances in the last week.

Our third match against a promoted side will be just as difficult as the other two, especially as Swindon came up as champions.

Glyn needs to sort out a shaky heart of our defence as well as trying to stop crosses being fed into our soft centre.

Up top the midfield need to get up the pitch to support the isolated Pig and Longman.

My expectations have been hit in the last week and so I am not expecting much today. However, another defeat will damage confidence amongst players and fans alike, so we must hope for an improved performance and a reward of some much needed points.

COYD!!!

[Colum]

Will the real AFCW please stand up! Our away form seems capable to making us look like a good team, whilst our “home” form is as shakey as Mr Stevens himself. Not only do we seem capable (just) of holding onto a lead away from home, whilst we seem equally capable of shooting ourselves in both feet at home whilst blindfolded. Let’s hope this “home” form disappears once we actually are home. In the meantime, I’ll go looking for the playoff dates!!

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