What an utterly shit week.
I’m not sure what makes this latest abject failure at the Frenzydome worse – that for the nth time in a row we shit the bed.
Or that it’s so fucking predictable.
I was luckily at Reading on Tuesday, so I could focus on their game instead of the latest AFCW clusterfuck at Milton Keynes Dons.
And yes, I’m using their name in full here. The club won’t, which I think explains some of the problem we have.
But while we all have our individual choices about how to approach this game, it just feels that once again – we just don’t know how to deal with it.
Granted, it doesn’t help when you have two defenders sent off and a third having to go off injured.
But we have a massive mental block over this particular fixture, especially away, and it’s been like that since we beat them at KM.
Just what is the issue with our players? Are they having to deal with the don’t-dare-mention-their-name inferiority complex AFCW has?
Are they too aware of the fixture, and it ensures we lose the game even before we get off the coach?
It’s happened under Walter, Hodges, and now JJ (I can’t remember if Mark Robinson ever took charge at a game there), and a massive change in squads among that time.
Same result, which means the one constant is the club’s attitude to this fixture.
Simply put – it kills us.
It’s almost like it runs away from the fixture, and hides until it goes away. While individual fans can do that, it’s pathetic coming from a professional football club.
All the “we’ve already won” bravado is just that. And it sounds shit when you once again turn up and crap your pants.
Nobody bar AFCW fans care that we’ve “won” – the football world moved on ages ago.
But they notice when we go 3-0 down after twenty-odd minutes. And that sticks in the throat.
There’s no guarantee of ever turning up to perform at any game, of course. But we could help ourselves so much more.
Yes, it does mean accepting they exist. Yes, it does mean perhaps even publicly acknowledging their name is Milton Keynes Dons.
And yes, it certainly means they handle the whole thing a lot, lot better than we do.
Maybe getting a sports shrink in next time to overcome this massive mental hurdle? Because something is wrong with all of this, and it’s now gone beyond annoyance.
It was telling afterwards that more people than I previously recall are getting fed up of the approach by AFCW over this.
I think they’re just pissed off with the constant embarrasment we display on the field against them.
How we change that mentality I’ve no idea. It’s pretty clear that the club itself isn’t going to change tack any time soon.
So you can expect yet more white flag waving the next time we play them. The attitude we had when we beat them 2-0 at KM died off ages ago.
The club let itself down on and off the pitch this week. Yet one suspects they’d rather accept a humiliating loss rather than actually deal with the reality of them existing.
Being “pure” means nothing in the real world. Beating those cunts certainly does.
We can – sort of – redeem ourselves tomorrow at home to Mansfield, and thankfully it looks like Omar Bugiel is back.
One of the very few highlights of Tuesday was JKG, who apparently showed a lot of promise.
It might still be a while before Ronan Curtis fully features, although we play Peterborough in the Dodgy Dave’s Motors on Tuesday, so I guess he’ll feature then.
One suspects we need a reaction tomorrow. Already people are talking about the post-Xmas slump (with glee in one or two cases) and JJ himself may not survive yet another one.
We had an ordinary Xmas and we’ve not exactly set 2024 alight either. So we need to find a win from somewhere before the mood sours again.
Needless to say, we have to do it without the Iraqi Scouser, and the rumour mill is suggesting Ipswich are moving for him.
Obviously, this time of year is as much speculation as anything else, but I still maintain that somebody will come in for him before the window shuts.
We’re not in a position to turn down a £2m+ offer, despite what some of our fans think, and it will be a stark reminder of this club’s finances.
The mood at the moment is obviously a bit gloomy after Tuesday (another reason to hope we win against Mansfield), and it will only get worse if he goes.
But if JKG and Curtis (and Bugiel) start finding the net again, and we win some games, then it’s amazing how quickly previous players get forgotten.
I’d rather keep AAH until the summer though, and I suspect AFCW itself does. But as said above, if the money is right he’ll be off.
Though there is a bit of me that wonders what would happen if Franchise ever made a stonking bid for one of our players…