Firstly, quick thanks to those who contributed to the last quick poll – there’s now a second one for you below.
[poll id=”4″]
Feel free to discuss this (or the game) in the comments section. Remember – your editor’s decision is final until he changes his mind again…
Which is a bit like bothering to do something on Northampton yesterday. I’m not going to write too much as I simply have precious little enthusiasm for it. However, here’s Tudor with something short if not very sweet:
Dirty Cloggers yelp
like a frightened teenage girl?
Insult to all girls!
And a more traditional report from Oli Duffy:
A classic mid-table League Two clash, then. It certainly was a game of two halves, and a bit of a rollercoaster diving to the depths of boredom and somehow climbing to the peak of nearly getting 3-0 ahead.
If this season is going to have a one-word summation, it will be ‘inconsistent’. You just don’t know which Wimbledon is going to turn up, even from half to half.
Admittedly, we have become rather consistent with our home and away form recently: WWDWWD at home, LDLLLD away in our last six games of each. Combining them, however, makes up for some pretty inconsistent overall form.
Anyway, you get the picture. Basically, the game yesterday was as inconsistent as the rest of our season. The first half was dull. Neither we nor they showed any skill, and nothing really happened.
There were moments of quality, Tanner made the odd run, Akinfenwa an occasional masterful flick-on, Rigg a rare run into the area where the ball was actually heading; but each was soon snuffed out be something crap. Usually a heavy touch or a misplaced cross.
It was one of those halves that has often acted as a harbinger of doom in the second half when the opposing team clues up to which side of the bed Ardley and co. got out of that morning. Case in point Mansfield at home in December.
The less said about the first half the better, to be honest. And that leaves the second half.
Hmmm.
One thing that our eleven had been particularly guilty of was hoofing the ball before they really had a think about what was going on around them. Both our goals demonstrated that it had been abundantly clear to them at half-time that they needed to use their brain cells a bit more.
Our first goal was wonderful to watch. Goalkeeper long ball (I thought Worner was pretty good, by the way), falls perfectly onto Akinfenwa’s head, nods it down to Rigg in the middle, goal. Beautiful English hoof-ball.
The second was pretty good too, even if was a bit fortuitous that the ball ended up back with us after Tanner’s attempt on goal. Good to see us slow things down and take some touches, but also shoot when the opportunity arrives.
Tanner’s near miss (he just cannot score can he, poor lad) turned out to be a vital moment in the game. I don’t think they would have been able to come back from that.
Both their goals were the result of our defense being a bit shit. A slow pass along the ground made it to one of their players unmarked in the middle of our box is unforgivable; he should have had the attention of both of our centre-backs. It was hardly as if the box was crowded.
Their second was a bit of clever gamesmanship on their part. Their players got Goodman and a few others all ruffled before the free-kick, and then they delayed the actual cross so that our defense had been opened up by their dummy movements. It is disappointing that we still fall for things like that. It was a decent cross though, I suppose.
Having had a display of our attacking potential and our defensive naivety, I was expecting the game to end 3-2 one way or the other. Both sides had some nerve-jangling moments but I guess 2-2 was a fair result in the end.
I was surprised by how their fans celebrated; they appeared to be celebrating an equaliser at 2-1 and a winner at 2-2. I know they have a small chance of play-offs, but a miniature pitch invasion for an equaliser in a mid-table game in the twilight of the season? A little bit embarrassing. Although I guess we can hardly point fingers for inappropriate pitch invasions…
Can we finish the season now and call it quits? Please?
More over Easter, if I can really be arsed…