Colum

Good point Rob. I also noticed the complete lack of emotion from Neil Ardley when the winner went in. Also the hug he gave his opposite number at the end. It was a gracious gesture from a manager who realised he’d slipped on a banana skin whilst carrying a pint, but somehow managed to stay upright and not spill a drop.

At 3-0 down the result was never in doubt 🙂

Lyle Taylor’s back in contention for a place in the Cup tie. Whoopee! But was he ever injured? The cynical among us may just think he was being rested.

What should we expect of the Curzon Ashton game?

– They’re 16th in the Conference North.
– They’re in the same League as FC United of Manchester.
– They were knocked out of the FA Trophy on Monday by Worcester losing 2-1 at home.
– The FA Trophy game was postponed from Saturday because of a frozen pitch.
– All home seats are sold, but there are…[Read more]

It is interesting watching Barnett play. Not particularly pleasing, just interesting. Yesterday he had odd moments, totaling about one minute in all, when you said to yourself, “If only you did that all the time.” The trouble is, he doesn’t. He doesn’t seem to have the desire to do a Tom Elliott. To fight for the cause, or put his body on the…[Read more]

You would not believe that I was sober when I wrote that last post. So many typos!

After the Lord Mayor’s Show? Well not quite, but last night’s game was a bit of a stinker. The positives are an away point and a clean sheet. The negatives, both full suspended backs for the Fleetwood game.

My abiding memories of the Millwall game was the excellent away support that silenced the home crowd for large periods of the game. Oh and…[Read more]

“OK lads. Forget about last Tuesday. It was a fluke score line. Today is a new start. It’s a clean slate. Let’s play like that cup loss didn’t happen.”

Whatever the pre match team talk in the Bury dressing room, it didn’t work. To be fair to Bury, just like last Tuesday, they started brightly. For 20 minutes they caused us issues.

Then Poleon…[Read more]

That has to go down as the most one sided game of football I’ve seen in ages. With the exception of some early doors pressure resulting in a good Shea save, Bury were woeful.

You could tell it wasn’t going to be their night when they had to make a tactical substitution after 35 minutes only to go 3-0 almost immediately afterwards. Then early in…[Read more]

Just about to leave for the latest round in the Bury rubber. If we play like we did on the away league fixture, we’ll be OK. If we play like we did in the first 45 of the cup leg, we won’t.

Perhaps the worrying signs are the number of niggling injuries that seem to be taking their toll recently. Shea and Meades have all missed games in…[Read more]

So we go again in 10 days. I have to admit to fearing the worst before the game, and definitely at half time. Whatever troubles Bury have on and off the pitch, a cup game is a great leveler. It is whichever team turns up on the day, and at 2-0 down you’ve have to admit that was Bury for 45 minutes. But credit to Neil and the team. We turned it…[Read more]

I’d take issue with the thought that NA’s substitutions cost us the game. It was clear to me from the hour mark onwards that the frenetic pace of the game was starting to take its toll on players. LTB in particular was struggling, after yet another mammoth effort. We needed to change things, and NA brought on direct replacements. OK I admit that…[Read more]

Before you get too despondent about our first defeat since early September, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Slowly exhale whilst remembering where we’ve come from, and how long it has taken us to get there. Then remember that for most of the yesterday’s game we gave a team that will be there or there abouts at the end of the season a real…[Read more]

Throw in a bit of TV money Windlesham Don and you’d hope the finances start to look as good as out league position.

As for a new keeper, which must be target number one come January, I don’t quite agree that he’ll automatically be a number two keeper. Sure Shea has improved, but if I was a keeper wanting to sign for the Dons, I wouldn’t want to…[Read more]

He’s gone.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/23/league-one-karl-robinson-leaves-mk-dons-by-mutual-consent

Probably good timing for us, as it allows them to have their one or two good games before resorting to type against the mighty Dons.

Well. Let me blink to see if this is really happening. Up to sixth and yet another away win. Who’d have thought it, and the evil ones losing again. Life is all good at the moment.

I wonder if Neil Ardley’s comments about Mr Meades was an exercise out of the Mourinho book of mind games. There he was saying the poor left back can’t walk or train.…[Read more]

Just looked at the Bury highlights, and two three things spring to mind:

Credit to both teams for getting the ball down and trying to play passing football on a surface better suited to water polo.
The two goals Bury gave away were very reminiscent of the type of defending we suffered from in the past. Lyle Taylor’s goal especially. For him to…[Read more]

Spot on Singapore Don. It was a great result, both at Bury and Bucks. But it was a fairly close run thing. Success is built on small margins. One missed tackle, one miskicked shot, and result could have been very different. Still one point the playoffs, and the unmentionables one point off relegation. Woohoo!

There’ll be no nostalgic return to Merstham for those imfamous cheese sandwiches. At least not until the second round if we both get through. They’ve got a difficult task against Oxford, but with home advantage, who knows. For a club like them, home advantage counts for a lot.

For us it is an away trip to Bury twice in a little under three…[Read more]

I’ve been to the last couple Wimbledon Minithons. It is very evident that the organisation has gone up several notches in recent years. What was originally an event for a few adults in a park, now involves the entirety of the teams playing under the AFC Wimbledon name. Boys and girls, it is a wonderful sight seeing several hundred people…[Read more]