Lo and behold, I get a match report for the Morecambe debacle…
Anyway, thanks to Whatadom for this. Your editor is still off to the United States until 5th November, and we might still have figured out how to play the basics of football by then.
Playing like Cock 2 – Picking Cockles 5
So let me begin regarding why I choose to write this edition of SW19 ARMY. It was mainly due to an Article that REPD wrote some 3 years ago entitled Time for a change. It was an article that was so right at the time.
To fill you in, it was the 3rd game of the 2012 / 13 season. Terry Brown was in Charge, and we had lost 5 – 1 at Valley Parade, having also suffered a 6 – 2 defeat to Burton Albion midweek.
So I have to admit I came very close to suggesting that yesterday’s score was actually Ardley In 2 – Ardley Out 5. So I was curious if REPD would be writing a Time for a change article 2015 / 2016 Edition.
[SW19 note: Not yet, but it might be coming closer]
I’m not sure where we are really.
So I will give Ardley and Co the benefit of the doubt again. Perhaps this is the stand out negative anomaly result of our season Think Daggers 4 – 0 Wimbledon. So I actually hope that an AFC Wimbledon 4 – 0 Portsmouth is around the corner.
And we have the chance to put that right this coming Tuesday against…….. AHHHHHHH FUCK.
Ok we have the chance to put it right against Accrington Stanley, away Tuesday night. This is probably a game to put your pension on the line and place a cheeky bet on Stanley.
So actually the rest of this month looks really bad, so it’s maybe a case of just getting through it. Writing it off if it gets SERIOUSLY BAD, and going again in November.
OK, to the GAME, I promise to revisit a few things in due course.
To start with I blame a season ticket holder next to me who suggested that it would be a 5 – 4 win for us. It was a joking suggestion because the 2pm kickoff seemed to catch people out before kickoff with everything looking fairly sparse pre match.
I think the players maybe heard the message. So we got an early goal through Barcham, but even before this we were a whisker of being 0 – 1 down as Morecambe took a HAFSOG approach to the game, and nearly caught Shea out early on.
But YES, we did indeed go 1 – 0 up with build up play that even included a back heel, so well done to Barcham who kept his cool and found the bottom corner of the net.
And THEN…….
We managed to screw up up, we gave away a silly penalty. We had a chance to clear, the striker was going nowhere, and down he went from a highly un manly challenge from Semi.
Eventually the HAFSOG approach from Morecambe then took its toll, with a strike moved in the air and flew into the top corner…….
Or did it ?
You see I think Shea is becoming a bit suspect this year. Last season he was great, he would make some great saves (what a keeper is meant to do). But this season …..
I’m not so sure, I’m not sure what is is but I didn’t think our number 1 is performing, or is making those Hollywood saves you expect. Quite rightly becoming a father could be problematic (I think Barry Fuller lost form last season too), but is the lack of a Ross Worner and competition having an effect too ?
After all I think Shea is being caught out by similar goals again and again, by being too off his line.
But anyway, at 1 – 2 the game became League 2 standard, and because of a terrible knee injury to Barcham we endured an additional 10 minutes of injury time. I say “we” because I and other headed to the bar at 2:45 and felt much better about oneself as cleary beer was the solution to our first half exploits.
It was clearly the right choice, as at half time we were 1 – 3 down. Oh well at least I had a pint in hand at the time. So there would clearly be a half time team talk and hopefully a bollocking from Ardley to have a go in the second half. Although I have to admit a trip to Nandos and not coming out at half time was indeed very tempting.
The second half started the same as the first, we got an early goal to make it 2 – 3 this time bundleing the ball home. So clearly we were going to have a go in the second half. It even got the Tempest / Chemflow end singing. Even the boys in yellow and blue were having a go, but this was not going to be the day where we would get the 3rd.
In the end, Morecambe killed us on the break another three times making the last 15 minutes very painful, buy at least the 96 Morecambe fans had a good day out at Circus Kingsmeadow.
So at full time everyone, players, fans and management was hurting. At full time AFC Wimbledon’s Nuclear Missiles expert summed it up that “conceding 5 at home is jolly well not good enough Mr Ardley.”
Plus Points: Scoring early in both halves, having a go early in the second half
Minus Points: Not being tight when 1 – 0 up, Barcham potentially out for 6 months, last 15 minutes, us not having a HAFSOG mentality
The Referee’s a…: One moment he was a ball boy getting the ball for their keeper. A bit fat, and a bit shit (so clearly league 2 standard). He was right to award them a penalty. I think he was a very league 2 referee.
Them : There HAFSOG mentality killed us. I think we were tactically out done with them being a much better league 2 side than us.
Truth is stranger than fiction: Two youths getting kicked out, only to then re-enter the ground this time not wearing the baseball caps ? Also the Tempest is clearly turning into a Kindergarten. I would really love it if stewards could actually start checking who has tickets for that stand, because the two reasons people get season tickets are :
– Games like Liverpool at home
– Guaranteed spot in the stand of your choice.
Also some of those youths could do with watching some porno once in a while.
Was it worth it? No I’d rather have gone to Nandos at Half time
Points to ponder: Ardley In or Ardley Out ? Ok I think the only way he will be sacked this season is if we start looking clueless like a Terry Brown Football League side.
Do we look clueless ? In my opinion no, in the most part we look like a league 2 team that is desperately under performing, but equally can still come good this campaign.
I often wonder with days like yesterday are the players like this in training. Because seriously, we must never score a goal in the training ground, Shea must never make a save and gets caught of his on daily, or no one ever shoots, or we conceed from set pieces every time.
Perhaps there is something not quite right in camp, and I’m far too detached from the camp to have any idea what that might be.
In a nutshell: Pressure is on Ardley for the rest of the year, and we may even be looking a bit Terry Brown Football league era. But things can turn around quickly and although we are all hurting a bit at the moment, lets hope things do improve.