Pacifists 1 Paras 2. It’s a shame there’s no prize money for winning the weekly Most Predictable Result contest, because at least we would have got something out of today.
AFCW, meet Planet Earth. Just in case you were getting carried away. At least it will put a welcome roadblock on any pretentions that we can somehow get in the playoffs. If we were legit contenders, we would have won these sort of games. The fact we never really looked like doing so tells its own story.
We were flat, lackluster and still dining out on the last three wins (two of which could have easily been draws or even losses). We seemed to come in with totally the wrong attitude against what one may describe as a typical L2 side and not for the first time we ballsed it up.
Going behind again may not be fatal for us this season, but I think we can safely say it’s more than just carelessness. It constantly puts pressure on everyone else to get a goal – and Sammy Moore’s effort was a deflection – and when it doesn’t come off it just ends up ruining your weekend.
If TB was taking the plaudits for the last three wins, he should take the criticisms for today. Why was Stuart playing instead of C-Mac? I hope it was an injury, because if it was our manager trying to be clever and fool the oppostion, he fucked it up.
TB does unfortunately have form for this – remember that Chelmsford game in the Ryman Prem when he dropped Chris Hussey and put in the far inferior Micky Haswell to try and fool Jeff King? We all know how that worked out.
We are – or were – a winning team, yet it seemed to get changed almost without any reason whatsoever (I can understand Hoyte coming in). Especially in an area of the field where the two starting players could have done with yet another game to get to know each other and maybe finally build up a much-needed understanding.
According to Graham Moody on Twatter, TB admitted he was out-thought today and we didn’t have a plan B when Aldershot were packing the midfield. If he’s going to be more than just a mid-to-lower table manager, he needs to be able to have not only a Plan B but a Plan C too. Though I’m not quite in a bad enough mood to suggest that we sometimes don’t have a Plan A.
Teams in the top eight know how to win these games. AFCW don’t.
But then, it’s just the whole Theme Park KM thing continuing on, isn’t it? You know the punchline by now, and today’s visitors went home very happy. I know you get games like this, but it’s annoying because they’re so predictable and obvious yet nothing seems to be done to prevent them. And they are preventable, with just a bit of proper mental application.
I’m thinking of Crewe this season as an example – a little run beforehand, an inflated sense of confidence going into the game and it all goes wrong. Although I hate to be the voice of doom here, the next time we won after that game in the League was a couple of weeks ago at Port Vale.
I’m hoping – and certainly expecting – the whole team to brush themselves down and give at least a good account of themselves at Cheltenham next week. The excuses will run very thin if we go on another 4/5 game run without winning.
Oh, and apparently, TB said after today that we were “leggy”…………
Plus points: Suppose we made a bit of money in the bars.
Minus points: 3pm to 4.50pm
The referee’s a…: *rolls eyes*
Them: The kind of typical League Two side that will always survive in this division because they know when and how to put in performances like that. Something we clearly can’t do as of yet.
Not particularly nice to watch, in fact one could argue we got taken down to their level, but these sort of teams have always been at this level of football. While we can scoff at the likes of York City for being relics of Division Four past, teams like our conquerors today are still very much around.
Glad we didn’t end up signing Hylton from them this time last year though.
Older heads may remember the interesting times we had with Aldershot (before we were AFC Wimbledon and before they were Aldershot Town), although it sums up modern football when they threatened us with a drum. Although there was reportedly trouble between them and Chelski meatheads in a nearby public house…
A thought occured to me during the game, and perhaps should come under “Truth…” – in the formative years of AFCW, I used to think that the way we’d known we’d really made it was playing Aldershot in a competitive League fixture. Although playing the likes of Woking, Slutton, T&M etc were the regular fixtures we hoped we’d get, to play Aldershot in such a game was the Holy Grail of AFCW.
And I certainly didn’t expect it to be in League Two.
Point to ponder: Has anyone noticed there’s starting to be the odd doubts expressed about Seb Brown? That would have been unthinkable even a few weeks ago, but I suppose when everyone else has been examined to the nth degree, it’s only expected that people might look at him without such reverence…
There were some occasions where he looked unsure what to do, and his kicking is pretty poor. Mind you, it’s easy to forget that he is only 22 years old and I expect there’s a lot more to come from him.
Even so, if everyone else in the squad has competition, why not him? If and when we’re safe, I would like to see Jack Turner get a run-out though, if only to stop him moaning 😉 But if that’s not an option, and if we can get Turner out on loan somewhere, would it hurt to bring in an experienced keeper who doesn’t mind spending time coaching him and/or sitting on the bench ready to come on?
As an aside, one may believe that there’s less apprehension about being more critical of our players (and management) full stop, especially post-slump. But that’s another story…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) If I’m being honest, I don’t get the Wimbledon Guardian’s “Drop The Mongs” campaign. A lot of people seem to want them to actually keep the nickname, if only because it’s an albatross around their neck. And to quote a highly placed individual today, it will only entrench currently held viewpoints over it. Me, I think it is a campaign that belonged to 2005 and not 2012… (2) I presume the new Comms Exec was shown around today, and hopefully we’ll get to see them making a splash. Incidentally, if you read back over recent OS entries, notice the wording on transfers and mentions of deals…..
Anything else? One final thought about the game – it really was typical League Two fayre, wasn’t it? It was quite horrible to watch in places, and any romantic notions of this type of football would have been quashed like a fruit fly.
I mentioned earlier about Aldershot being a “traditional” fourth tier side, but we contibuted as much to the entertainment (sic) as anyone else. Question is, is this how it’s going to be for the next few seasons?
To be fair, these kind of games aren’t every week, and you get a few of the Gillingham type contests (not to mention Macclesfield) to make life a bit interesting. But there was something familiar about today, which perhaps explains how far we’ve come and how settled into life in League Two we actually are.
It felt like the WFC era games against the likes of Coventry or Sheffield Wednesday. One goal in it, entertainment low and skill level even less. It didn’t even have the soul destroying horror of a similar performance/result in the backwaters of the football pyramid. While we’re not safe from the drop zone, this result ruins your weekend but probably won’t ruin your season.
Maybe we really are back after all?
So, was it worth it? Fuck off.
In a nutshell: In the words of the jubilant Shots fans outside afterwards, “how shit must you be?”.