Recovered yet?
Doom, despair, misery, borderline suicidal tendencies. Then shock, then amazement, then acceptance of relatively minor disappointment, followed by the climax to end all climaxes.
I tell you, trying to get internet at the Amex can be a rollercoaster.
We also won 4-3 in the 97th minute, after being 2-0 down after 68 minutes. I’m annoyed because a) I wasn’t there, b) everyone else will be talking about it for a good while, and c) I can’t get to use Sandown Park 4 Cheltenham 3 without being at the game.
Fortunately, Tudor has been roped in kindly agreed to a couple of contributions. The first is a bite-sized one.
Christmas tree? Tip tap?
Bollocks to that! League 2 sussed:
Three up front and shoot!
And now, a more longer one…
Boot on the other foot 4Â Going home empty handed 3
A team going home empty-handed from Theme Park KM! Wonders will never cease!
Still, for Cheltenham it must have felt like winning a cuddly toy on the duck shoot booth, then grabbing an extra large candy floss – only to trip and watch the entire lot end up in a muddy puddle.
However, after the last minute gubbing with the last kick of the game up at Whaddon Road, it was the least we could do to return the favour.
Precis:
– They scored from an uncontested header at the back post after 4 minutes.
– We played like a bunch of deformed muppets for the first 60 minutes.
– After weakly going another goal down, NA obviously decided “fuck it†and stuck Hylton on up front with Midson and Wyke and played 4-3-3.
– 3 goals in 2 minutes.
– We then suddenly got a nosebleed and went back into our shell (although at this point, 3-2 up would have been a perfect time to revert to tippy-tappy and control the game/run out the clock). Instead, Cheltenham got a goal back and it was all nervous exchanges for the final 15 minutes or so.
– 6 minutes in, with the last kick of the game, Midson is there in the right place at the right time to get his foot on a Wyke header down into the six-yard box (a handsome Frampton cross).
Confidence:
And I’m talking about the fans as much as the players here. Although we’re hanging around like a bad smell in the middle of the table, this season had swiftly gone down the toilet.
By now, everyone knows how the game will progress…
1. We fuck around for the first half an hour, during which time the opposition may or may not score.
It doesn’t matter, because we don’t react until NA has had a chance to get the boys in the dressing room and blame them for not doing what he taught them have a chance to change tactics from the ineffectual (in League 2, anyway) TippyTappy2.0. Again. Just like the previous game.
2. Lucy or Arthur or AN Other comes on around the 60-70 minute mark and we suddenly realise that running fast at well-drilled but not-especially-gifted defenders creates opportunities (well, duh, every other bloody team in the division has been doing it to us for the past two and a half years!).
A series of desperation crosses-cum-shots causes goals, in an amazing turn-around – if you were born yesterday, or are as stubborn as a mule about your shiny UEFA Coaching Licence.
Is it any wonder, when you’ve seen the movie 35 times before, that the fans aren’t up for it in the first half?
Tearing up the script:
Now, yesterday was slightly different, in that NA had told the players “fuck it, just do whatever you want, see how that turns out for youâ€.
Of course, this led to them running around like headless chickens. Whether this was a cunning Machiavellian ploy for him to reassert control for his beloved TippyTappy2.0 or not, I can’t tell – but the management certainly seem to have got the message about the HAFSOG movement that’s slowly grown amongst the supporters.
The good thing is that NA also took his own advice on 60 minutes or so and decided to stop over-analysing things and that – if the Dons were going to go down – he might as well throw caution to the wind.
Strangely enough, with 3 up front, Midson, Wyke and Hylton all suddenly found players in and around the penalty area instead of ploughing their own lonely furrow like they usually have to in one of Ardley’s clever-clever 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 or 3-2-2-1-2 formations.
Yes, it left us exposed at the back for one of those running-at-our-defenders-very-fast tactics that we’ve seen 10,000 times before. But at least we have a decent defence this season, and the likes of Barry Fuller shepherded trouble away from our penalty area and into the corner with his usual impeccable aplomb.
Yes, they got a shot off, and equalised, thanks to a bit of luck, but that’s why HAFSOG works in this division. Fuck me, it worked for us at least twice with deflections for two of our goals.
Speaking of which…
“He’s not a goal-scoring messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.â€
The non-Midson faction were quite funny after the game, with a truly Pythonesque “yeah, well, apart from the two assists and the last minute goal, what did Jack Midson do?â€.
I would guess some people don’t like the way he runs around, burning off nervous energy and tugging/getting tugged and generally annoying the opposition centre backs. NA probably doesn’t like him going into the corners with the ball, chasing lost causes and ‘losing shape’.
However, both his assists came from him crossing balls/passing from the left: one for Hylton, one pull back for Richardson to have a strike from the edge of the box (hopefully NA will beat that kind of ridiculousness out of him before the Cobblers game on Tuesday).
Lies, Damned Lies and Statisitics:
From Ambadad on the WUP guestbook:
Midson Watch — Started 13, W7, D2, L4, Pts 23 from 39.
When Jack has started — 1.77 points per game.
When Jack hasn’t started — 0.96 points per game.
Jack has started 12 of 38 League games. His longest starting run is 5 games
Whether he looks ugly on the pitch or not, or disrupts patterns or whatever the UEFA coach-speak is, it’s about results: and moreover or me, heart and passion and never-give-up.
Indeed, it was interesting to see Hylton go out of his way to celebrate/thank Midson after his first goal. That shows a teamwork and cooperation.
I was even more surprised/delighted to see Hylton start to run after lost causes and annoy the goalie and pressure defenders into kicking the ball out of play. The final 30 minutes was more like the Wimbledon I know and love.
It was also a delight to see Sideways Sammy Moore and Barry Dogs Bollocks Fuller both come over to the EcoHouse after the game and really applaud the fans. They are unsung and occasionally-maligned players for the team but they always give 100%.
When you have a limited budget and the kind of limited players that we can afford, you need a team to be more than the sum of its parts.
I think the game on Saturday encapsulated that.
I received this after I’d written everything below, but if you see any similar comments made then maybe we’re just simply guilty of stating the bleeding obvious.
To be honest, there are two ways you can look at it. You could say we’re lucky that we got back after what sounded like an utterly (and predictably) dreadful first 68 minutes, although to repeat the 97th minute trick two Saturdays in a row is an impressive feat.
Or you could say that we were shit for the first 68 minutes etc etc, but we switched it, and finally HAFSOG. And the rest is glorious history…
While I await proper highlights to be uploaded onto Youtube (as in, that crazy five minute spell where however many goals were scored), I have to be honest and admit I still can’t get my head around that.
Up until we found the net, there was a real crushing sense of inevitability. Another poor performance at Theme Park KM (where all visitors go home happy). Another defeat. Another weekend ruined. And another painful NA interview, where he once again struggles to explain away a meek surrender.
Of course, it got even more doom-laden when we found out that Northampton were winning. So this slam-dunk of a season was declining into yet another painful and stomach-churning relegation scrap, with “our best set of players” once again failing to convince that AFCW belongs in the Football League.
So, what happened yesterday? Did we collectively finally – finally – stop fucking about and HAFSOG? Sounds like it, and you really can’t argue with what must be one of the quickest turnarounds in any game anywhere.
Seriously, somebody ask the Guardian’s Knowledge bods. Even if they find out some second division side from Paraguay did it in about 54 seconds, it’s got to be a pub quiz question at some point.
OK, it went 3-3, and if we’re being honest I bet we would have taken that. But I can only imagine the reaction when NA’s favourite player, one Mr J Midson, popped up to send everyone into a frenzy that they haven’t seen since, erm, last week.
What does all this prove? Firstly, the obvious negativity out of the way first – the first 2/3rds sounded outright whale wank. And it’s still not going to answer the question of whether NA is as tactically clever as he thinks he is.
On a more positive note, what this also proves is what happens when you give the best partnership up front a chance to do something. Before this game, we were told that we’d been working on our forward play, and you have to say it (eventually) paid off.
And isn’t that the whole point behind the whole HAFSOG movement?
Look, I don’t think we’re a bad side. I don’t think we’re a good side either, but we aren’t – and shouldn’t be – as hopeless as we were last season. But twice in seven days we’ve plugged away and got four points that could have easily been zero.
If you can’t be a good side, then the next best thing is to battle until your bollocks drop off. And because of that, we’ve got an absolutely massive three points and – just as importantly – a bit more confidence within us.
We can do it. And on occasions, we do do it as well.
Most people reading this grew up with the notion that a Wimbledon side battled until coronary failure set in. And that was just the supporters. True, that was always a bit of a rose-tinted view, and not entirely accurate (I can remember enough crap even during the 85-88 golden era), but as a Dons fan you expect some guts.
No, the lump-it-up approach wouldn’t work these days, but too often in recent years we’ve pushed it too far the other way. It’s almost as though the club itself is embarrassed it fought for games, and is trying to reinvent itself as the Barcelona of League Two.
We’re not, we never have been, and we never will be. To pretend otherwise is just arrogant, self-deluded bullshit.
A well-known poster in the comments section made the, er, comment that NA may have been “advised” to HAFSOG. We’ll never know, needless to say, but our boss really won’t do himself any favours if he reverts back to the negative approach when so many teams are there for the taking.
Although ironically enough, that may not be the worst tactic to employ on Tuesday.
The main point from yesterday is that winning is always good. But to win like this feels euphoric. And I think the management and the players have missed the point a bit too often this season.
It got mentioned in the last update, but you can only put up with the negative stuff for so long – and hardly ever when you end up losing games anyway. People have a bit of a buzz now, as they have done between 5pm after Burton and 3pm yesterday.
Why? Because we had a fucking go, that’s why.
Too much of this season has been genuinely arduous to watch. And it’s always felt as though it’s a one-way street when NA or a player keeps telling the crowd that they should be lifting the players.
How many times have you read this season “we need to take responsibility and lift the crowd ourselves” from management or squad? Hardly ever, isn’t it?
The onus has far too often been on the supporters and not the people who actually make a difference when it comes to winning games. And that’s why our support has come a lot closer to turning against the team/NA than you may want to believe.
But when you come back against Burton, when you do something that almost seemed impossible at 68 minutes yesterday, then you believe. Then you start getting behind the players. And then you lift the place and everyone is on the same hymnsheet.
And that’s really what you want to see. Granted, you want to see us up the top doing to League Two what we did to the Conference South (and who would be our modern day Chelmsford? Or indeed, our Axewounds?), but that ain’t gonna happen.
The Cheltenham boss said that it was their best performance for a while bar that five minute spell, and it just proves that if you take a game to any team in this division, you can get something.
Look at who is currently at the right end of L2, and you’ll notice that we’ve beaten Rochdale and Scunny (and not lost to the Irons), and drew with Chesterfield after a previously awful “performance” by us.
Not to mention beating Fleetwood, Burton and York at some stage this season too. For obvious reasons, Oxford doesn’t count.
I think we have a mental/attitude problem, that comes from the top. We still show too much fear, too much cap-doffing to the opposition and too often fail to have a go, but when we do remove the straightjacket, we usually get something.
Northampton could go either way, and we’ll probably lose it knowing us. But again – if we lose the fear factor and stop being so cowardly, we could really make the season easy for ourselves with a victory.
Remember – we had a fucking shot on goal against Chesterfield. We drew. We had a fucking shot or two against Burton. We drew. And we had more than a fucking shot on goal yesterday, and you know the rest better than I do.
And who knows, maybe we could even try it before the 28th minute…?