The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

Thanks for the info, Rob. Potentially Barnett is a great signing for us, but NA will need to weave his magic in rehabilitating another player who seems to have lost his mojo in recent seasons.

From his Crawley days, where he formed a formidable partnership with Matt Tubbs (remember him?) and prompted the £1m+ bid from Posh, he has had a steady decline in performance, suffering from disciplinary issues at Posh and then obviously falling out with manager Micky Mellon at Shrewsbury. I am sure that NA would have talked to Dannie Bulman about him, as they were teammates at Crawley, and he must have received some positive feedback.

At 30 years of age, there is still plenty of time for him and if he can be successfully integrated into the squad, persuaded to ‘buy in’ to the club ethos and start enjoying his football again, then he could be a great signing for us.

All in all I feel his signing is a gamble, but probably one worth taking bearing in mind our limited resources at this level. Let’s hope he gets off to a fast start in Womble colours!

[onyadon]

So we set out in AFC Wimbledon’s debut season in League 1 against Walsall. A good early test for the Dons this one. Although the Saddlers have made a number of changes, they did finish one point off automatic promotion last season, so anything at the Bescot Stadium would a great start. It’s important we don’t read too much into the early results (either way) as Neal Ardley works to bed in his six new additions, particularly new striker Tyrone Barnett. This could be a challenging season for the Dons. Our Pundits Poll averages out a 14th place finish and even the great Dave Bassett went for 18th place, so we are not really sure how things will go this season. As always I will be keen to read the thoughts of the people at the ground to tell us what they think. And once again

I make the call to all to get behind the forum this season and make it work for WDSA.

[Windlesham Don]

Good to have the forum back! One point before I ramble on about today’s match is that I felt the Forum worked better when readers could go directly to the Matchday thread. As has been mentioned by others Rob’s summary (as above) seemed to act as a starting point for comment and discussion on each forthcoming match. A suggestion may be to re-focus the forum rather than have a single thread?

OK, a group of us head up to the Bescot stadium with absolutely no idea what lies ahead (apart from roadworks on the M6 of course!) I can’t recall any match since our first in the CCL where I have had no idea of what is a good result – Walsall just missed automatic promotion and lost in the play-offs, but out of the 14 players who lost to Barnsley only 4 remain! There has thus been a massive re-building at the Bescot and so the opposition may take time to bed in – a good time to play them? However, Walsall’s new signings look good and so they will have quality we are not used to facing. Also, they are liable to play a passing game, which was virtually unheard of in League 2!

We have looked pretty solid and well organised as pre-season has progressed and we also have made some very good acquisitions. If Barnett is match fit then he should replace Elliott, but I will be intrigued to see how the gaffer sets up midfield.

In conclusion, I don’t have a clue what to expect from today. I hope for a big, noisy and supportive travelling support and a team which gives their all. If we get these then I will be content.

COYD!

[Devon Womble]

Well, it’s 8.45am here in upstate South Carolina, an hour and fifteen minutes away from the start of my long awaited seasonal fix of AFCW.
I look forward to seeing an active forum again too, and promise to chide NA occasionally, if only to incite the more learned among you.
When I picked Walsall as my League One champions for the WDSA pundits challenge I truly didn’t realise that they would be our first match! Ho hum…. it might be an early exit for me after last year’s promising performance as a pundit…
Seriously though, with both teams bedding in key players, or in Walsall’s case, a whole new team, this game has to be the biggest unknown of the league one season. I half expect a bore draw, but then if Taylor fires one home we will soon know how many extra gears Walsall have (if any). So, given the propensity for AFCW to start a season well and Walsall’s serious budget blowing gamble, I’m going for a slow start and an explosive 2-2 finish with Poleon getting our second to salvage a point.

[MacWomble]

Yes, as you say; “a good early test”, and a test that we flunked a bit. I’m sure that a win away would be seen as very good at this stage of the season, but it just goes to show how life in our new part of the cabbage patch is going to be tough beyond belief. Our demonic, evil and mis-shapen half-cousin went to Shrewsbury and showed how it is done. It will be interesting to read the reports and ignore what The Gaffer has to say until we get a reasonable run of games bedded in. On another note, I did prefer the previous system whereby we had a thread for each game, but that did mean that people were reluctant to post after the game, as no-one would re-visit an old thread. This single-thread format will work much better if we could post at the top of the page, i.e. next to the most current post. At present you have to scroll down far from the conversation to the bottom of the page. While I type this the only post I see is Devon Womble’s Jan 12, 2016 post enquiring the same. So, maybe it is not possible. Anyway….. Summer is over Mr Ardley and you know your WDSA target….14!

[liamwimbo]

One of the silver linings of being winter time in Oz is the earlier kick off time. 11.30pm for me in Adelaide. So I listened in to radio WDON. Story of the first half was very straightforward – conceding early, missing two chances and getting punished for bad defending. Dozed off in the second half so only saw the final score.
I suppose it confirms that we will have our work cut out in this division. No need to panic after one game either. As Wiz used to say, only worth making a judgment after 10 games into the season. The Dons have relied on good away results in recent years to get where they are now, but this season it will be home form that determines our fate.
On a more optimistic note, we should know about New Plough Lane very shortly. Fingers crossed!

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