As the 16th President of the United States put it, don’t believe everything you read on the internet…
Sadly, I wish I could say nicer things about Going Down 0 Staying Up 2, but I can’t.
We did get our arse into gear for a spell in the second half, and if Zach “Son of Mark” Robinson hadn’t had a rush to his head, it might have been a different report you read now.
But let’s not pretend otherwise here – this is a typical performance of teams going down.
I’m sure there’ll be the post-game spin of “luck”, or of injuries, or the usual one-more-push-and-we’ll-be-winning-again.
The club’s OS report has more spin than Rossiya 1 commenting about Russia’s excursion into Ukraine.
Yet it’s been 17 or 18 games without a win. That’s almost half the season.
Today, you can see why we’ve still not won since December. For all the trying hard, there’s just simply no cutting edge there.
Once Lincoln went ahead, many people at half time just looked resigned to yet another loss.
While the team did give some hope ten minutes after the restart, that’s all it turned out to be – “some”.
The less said about their second goal the better, and you just felt the heart of AFCW drop out of us that very minute.
And it’s really a question of the following – now what?
The biggest amazement this evening remains us still not being in the bottom four.
It’s like some bad action movie where the baddie gets a nuclear bomb dropped on him and still doesn’t die.
As said on here before though, once we find ourselves in the relegation places I don’t think we’ll get out of them.
Unless something drastic changes, needless to say.
You can probably guess what that is, and I’ll come to that in a bit. But people seemed resigned now.
It was very flat in the first half, and only livened up after we put a couple of (half) chances together.
Oh, and there were boos afterwards…
Plus points: Zach Robinson. Period after half time.
Minus points: Everything else.
The referee’s a…: When you get a goal disallowed because he calls it back as a player is injured, you know your luck is out.
Actually think he got it right with the non-penalty for us, as it goes. At least on first viewing. It won’t be down to him if we get relegated.
Them: Not much better than we were, but they had people who knew how to find the net on occasions.
Remember when we could do that? Oh yes, that was in January.
Their player getting sent off was an idiot, squaring up so blatantly with Brown, although they seemed to weather that particular storm.
Decent turnout from them. And you can’t begrudge them singing “Going down” at us…
Point to ponder: So, Mark Robinson – in or out?
I get the very real impression the club don’t want to sack him, and I certainly believe he won’t walk.
But I just can’t see it getting much better under him any more.
He’s certainly rattled, with those comments after today’s game in the SLP. You can draw your own conclusions about them.
Whilst walking (OK, limping) back to the bus stop after the game, I remember a game towards the end of the Ardley era, when everything was put into that fixture to prop him up.
I forget who it was against (Shrewsbury?) but we lost that in the last minute. And it proved terminal.
With Robbo, it’s starting to get that way if it’s not fully entrenched now.
Yes, he got shafted when Ollie Palmer was sold**, and he has the right ideas. But if this was any other club, he would have been gone by now.
That’s not a compliment to the AFCW decision makers.
** – one thing that bugs me about OP’s departure. We’re finding out that DTB members weren’t happy about it either, and the narrative is that it was Joe Palmer’s doing.
So why didn’t they block it if they felt that way? Or is it like so many other things at AFCW, namely nobody seems to take responsibility when it matters?
Robbo will still be here for the Cheltenham game next week, but I don’t think he should be.
He’s definitely feeling the pressure, as his SLP comments show. Maybe they came from an apparent incident, where the management team told a few fans to fuck off after the final whistle.
MR himself tries to be fan-friendly, and puts focus on inter-personal relationships. So it must be a shock to him getting it in the neck.
I’m sure if Robbo does go at some point, the club will take far too long to make the decision.
But it’s not about the feelings of certain decision makers – their priority is AFC Wimbledon. If it means axing a friend of theirs, so be it.
As for whether sacking him will do anything, maybe and maybe not.
You could try the middle route and put in a more experienced coach alongside MR for the rest of the season.
Although that could end up undermining our current head coach, especially if the players respond better to the new guy.
But you can’t deny that if MR got his marching orders this week, and Darius/Brown/Bayzo took charge, you’d be clamouring to go to Cheltenham next weekend…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) “Chelsea’s going bankrupt, la la la la”. One of the loudest chants of the day, which wasn’t saying much. 2) Plough Lane feels more like home every game. We’re even dreading fixtures there now.
Anything else? Among the 10001 reasons why playing at Plough Lane again is great, is that we can finally build up support.
On the bus coming back, there was a dad taking his lad to his first ever game (the kid’s, not the old fella).
He might be put off for life, but equally he may not.
We’ll need to spread the word in the coming years, and we’re already making a move locally.
I have noticed in the last couple of weeks more shops around SM4 especially, carrying posters of upcoming AFCW games.
A lot of shops are displaying them, which is good to see.
While you can wax lyrical about “reach” on social media, people still respond well to a good, old fashioned poster.
We had 8174 or something there today, and I bet one or two of them saw a display at their local shop, and had their interest piqued.
It’s that sort of thing that doesn’t make me so worried about relegation, at least on a club stability level.
Most of us will still go, and there will still be some who will go for the matchday experience as a treat.
It’s been said on SW19 before : we’ve missed out of three decades of being in the local area, and we’re now playing catchup.
So to see posters in various shops in Morden and Wimbledon Chase is very pleasing to see, and hopefully it becomes a regular thing.
It’s just a shame we serve up a load of shite on the field…
So, was it worth it? Nope.
In a nutshell: Going down.