The Lounge

[Windlesham Don]

Neal’s update ahead of tomorrow’s match has not improved my mood. Poor Will Nightingale goes under the knife again. Let’s hope it is only a minor op, but we must start worrying whether Will’s body will ever allow him to realise his undoubted potential.

Darius is still not even training, now 2 months on from a training ground knock. This is worrying as Darius has also spent much time on the physio table over the last few years.

Jon Meades is also a worry. Also injury prone throughout his career, Jon’s ankle injury does not seem to be clearing up and there is only a finite amount of time an injury can be managed.

After these key players, I guess an injury to Chris Whelpdale is not as key to our prospects, but nevertheless he has yet to be fully fit since joining and his chances of staying with us long term must be receding with every missed game.

A week or two ago we were simply worrying about our key players being tempted away in the January window. Now it looks like we may need to strengthen, certainly at centre back.

At least Barcham is back and should get some game time tomorrow…

[liamwimbo]

Bad news about young Will. He is such a good prospect so hopefully will recover quickly.

After a hectic schedule, the week off should help the Dons freshen up. The team have proved themselves hard to beat, but really need to start winning league games to ensure we stay in the top half of the table.

So hopefully home advantage will help provide another 3 points towards the 50 point target that Ardley has spoken about.

[Singapore Don]

Well could we have had a better early Christmas present from the boys in blue? Shaking the match package this morning it was hard to work out what exactly was in store after the highs of Curzon and lows of the unspeakable – today’s offering could have been anything if truth be told. Well, what we got was the perfect gift – a great 4-0 scoreline, a superb result, but a fantastic consummate team performance as well. This was truly a great game and great day, festive joy all round.

At half time, the talk of the terraces (or seats) was the outstanding performance not of one of our own, but of the excellent Vale keeper. He produced four sublime saves, top drawer each one of them, and to be fair to him all done with a wry smile on his face after pulling them off. Not smug, just happy at what he’d pulled off. And when the whistle blew for half time it really did feel as though the keeper’s brilliance and luck were going to be against us.

And then the second half started, and the wrapping was torn off the gift waiting for us festive hordes. And what a delight of Dons dominance was delivered. We were simply unplayable for virtually every minute of the second half. Thankfully the Vale keeper’s earlier brilliance was in vain behind a defence that was as leaky as leaky could be. Suddenly we were scoring from set pieces for fun – unheard of last season – and every attack looked as though it could end in a goal. Our front three of Elliott, Poleon and Taylor were breathlessly impressive: their work rate was astonishing. Taylor in particular ran and ran and ran and ran, and fought for the cause like a soul possessed. He was my man of the match. Poleon provided his goal poacher’s touch to an excellent low cross from the excellent fill-in left back, Kelly – he had a blinder coming in for Meades, and we should feel reassured that in that department we are well covered.

Elliott – powerful and dynamic as ever – scored with a text book centre forward’s header from a corner, delivered by the back-in-form Parrett who put in his best performance for some time after some shaky outings in recent games. He certainly seemed to add steel and creativity to our midfield offering after Francombe went off injured with what looked like a dead leg. Reeves and Bulman were equally impressive in midfield, bossing that part of the field after a subdued first ten minutes or so. Bulman once again defied his age to motor around the field breaking up play, muscling in winning balls and setting up fresh attacking opportunities – what an engine that “boy” has.

Our clean sheet is testimony to the effective barrier that our back four put up -though in truth they were rarely tested. Barry was back to his old commanding best at right back, cajoling and driving forward, while Kelly over at left back dealt with any threat down that wing with relative ease. The two Robbos in central defence never looked troubled, and it was great that Robertson got on the score sheet for the first time to cement his all round positive contribution to the team. And between the sticks, young Shea was as strong as he’s been all season: commanding his box, coming out decisively to win balls on the edge of his box, in effect playing as a sweeper at the back. He made one outstanding save when he stopped a certain goal by palming the ball at full stretch up on to the bar. Though quite how the ball didn’t go in when it rebounded down on to his back on the goal line and bobbled on his body there is beyond me! It seemed certain to go in, but somehow he twisted round to grab it from his own back. It was at that moment (we were 2-0 up), with that bit of luck, that we could really start to believe we were going to get the present we wanted at 3pm. Thankfully at the final whistle, we could head off into the damp foggy surrounds of Kingsmeadow glowing in the joy of a pre-Christmas convincing victory that shows that at the end of 2016 we are comfortably a League One club – actually a very good one. There are good times ahead for sure. Happy Christmas!

[Singapore Don]

Oops, one glaring omission from my hastily written round up: Tyrone Barnett. He had a cameo appearance for the last ten minutes, and once again got a goal to bolster the Dons position. He still look a bit more leggy and more lethargic in his overall work rate and effort, but I’m now wondering whether that matters quite so much if he’s scoring important – and impressive – goals, as he did again today. His sharp turn and left foot pile driver was a brilliant goal – showing that he can score with his feet as well as he can with his head (as seen at Charlton and Curzon). For the first time, the crowd around me broke out in to chants of “We’ve got Tyrone Barnett, we’ve got Tyrone Barnett” to the Elliott tune – perhaps indicating that he is at last being accepted in to the fans’ fold. No better time that this happy season to share the joy all round. Good on you Tyrone!

[liamwimbo]

Thanks for the match report, Pete. I listened in on Radio WDON for the whole 90 minutes. So heard about how we dominated, but were denied by their keeper in the first half. Then just as Mikey T was describing how one-sided the stats were early in the second half, the Dons took the lead. And sounds like Shea’s save at 2-0 up was crucial in the final outcome. An added bonus was the commentary team reporting the comeback by the Youth team in the FA youth cup at Huddersfield. All in all, a great way to dispel the disappointment of last week. So now looking forward to 2017. Can it possibly match 2016?

[Windlesham Don]

Well my concerns for yesterday were well and truly put to bed! Many thanks, Pete, for another great summary from the WDSA’s new ‘official match summariser’! ;o)

I’ll try to add to Pete’s thoughts with a few of my own from the day…

Firstly, the atmosphere before the match was extremely subdued. I had a friend with me and I had mentioned that often the last match before Xmas is poorly attended and quiet, but the home end was packed as normal and the lack of atmosphere before the match and early on can only have been down to our previous week’s performance and result. The players were also extremely subdued for the first 10-15 minutes. My friend turned to me and said “this doesn’t look good” as we stood off and allowed Vale to knock the ball around. I’m not sure what changed, but after about 15 minutes we had an attack and cut through the Vale defence pretty easily. This may have given the players belief I don’t know, but whatever happened from there we didn’t look back.

Something else that helped us was the replacement of Francomb with Parrett. Sadly George was having one of his ‘tippy tappy’ matches and I just don’t think he is physical enough to play in a midfield 3. The introduction of Parrett added energy, dynamism and no little skill to our midfield – the Vale ‘United Nations’ midfield could not live with the speed, physicality and passion of our triumvirate, and when the three of them play as they did yesterday they are a match for any midfield in the division.

As the match wore on and the goals materialised, the atmosphere turned into a pre-Xmas party and the depression of the previous weekend lifted. The players were interacting with the crowd and it almost seemed that the close link between supporters and players was being repaired after the previous week, where the players tried too hard to get a result and almost seemed to freeze. LTB especially, seemed to be dashing around like a young kid – no one celebrates a victory better than Lyle and he must be horrible to play against if you are losing!

One final comment. I have taken to attending the post match Man of the Match presentation to allow the crowds to drift off and the car park to clear. These are fantastic events, with Ivor hosting the match day mascots and several players. The banter is superb and Ivor is perfect in the role. Yesterday the ‘three musketeers’ of Tom, Dom and Lyle entertained amidst a party atmosphere, and what came across more than anything else is the feeling that these guys (and indeed most of the rest of the squad) really ‘get’ what is unique and special about playing for a fans-owned club – long may it continue.

A Merry Christmas to all Wombles, wherever in the world you may reside!

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