Blimey, we’re even able to win at Bloomfield Road these days…
There’s been games that we’ve won but were tough to go through. Then there’s the ones that you somehow got away with.
But then there’s ones like Blackpool yesterday, where we come away with all three points and it was more comfortable than you dare hoped.
I’m sure we get routine wins, but I’m struggling to think of one that sounded quite so easy.
Especially a side with no Stevens, Lewis, Hackford, Foyo (who is a lucky boy that he just got a one month ban for his betting) and in such shit conditions too.
I was going to make a crude joke about being blown by Amy, but I won’t.
Mind you, a hen do would probably have done better than Blackpool yesterday, so much so that we cost Steve Bruce his job.
Yes, that Steve Bruce.
I’ll be honest here, I didn’t realise he’d gone into there, although that shows the danger of getting a “famous” manager who is past his best and is now only doing it because retirement sucks.
Mark Hughes is another one of those, and eventually the likes of Chris Wilder will go the same way.
Your editor was reading the Blackpool forum before and after the game, and they really weren’t keen on Bruce and how bad they were.
After the news broke, it wasn’t just our fans who had a nice night either.
As for us, all hail Daniel Orsi. Penalty taker extraordinaire, right-place-right-time merchant and – if you look at the Sky highlights – somebody with a lasso celebration that can wind up the opposition fans.
Orsi by name, Orsi by nature.
I’m not sure the penalty we got was one, although apparently we were denied two beforehand which were, so I guess it evens out.
But if Stevens and Hackford are absent in more games, then we’ll need some more goalgetters.
And I’m glad Orsi has found the net and got it given (I still don’t think his effort at Doncaster was offside), because he might be very useful.
Special mention at the back for Bauer too, who came in for his first (?) ninety minutes for a League game with us.
I didn’t hear any “oh shit, he’s playing” comments from anyone, so he must have done all right.
And he’s another one from the PFA Summer Camp, so no doubt we’ll be looking for some more of those before long.
Harbottle might be a bit miffed being on the bench, although we’ll need him at some point too.
All in all, you can feel smug about our performance this weekend, and justifiably so.
The old jokes about getting enough wins to avoid relegation remain, although you can’t blame anyone for saying them.
We’re already starting to get a little bit of an injury crisis, which is why I’m glad we’re not playing too many midweekers right now.
But we’re fifth, which is much more than anyone could have predicted. Fifth from bottom was more likely for us, wasn’t it?
If nothing else, everyone around the playing side should be walking around like a canine with two willies at this moment.
JJ is certainly entitled to be pleased, and you can tell how happy he was afterwards on the OS.
As a manager, you must live for those sort of performances and results. They don’t come around too often for most clubs, and while he often looks like he doesn’t sleep a wink – he must have had a good night’s rest last night.
Ditto all of us. I know it’s very tempting to enjoy this while it lasts, although didn’t we do that last season too?
I won’t entertain any notion of us playing in the Championship next season, maybe if we’re fifth at the end of April I might start harbouring such sentiments.
Although it would be funny if we did go up this season. At least those predicting we’d have one campaign in the third tier in May would be correct…
So, all is well on the good ship AFC Wimbledon. Nothing can go wrong, right?
Actually, this on the OS isn’t a bad bit of timing as it goes. It tells us nothing that we didn’t really know, and it’s something we should have been properly doing at least five years ago.
I couldn’t help noticing that it was hidden away on the site when I tried to find it this morning, especially if you click on the News section.
Leaving aside that it feels dutybound to repeat “fan ownership” a fair bit, it’s basically 50+1 via stealth.
It’s the way we tend to do things at AFCW anyway, and it will be easier to get it through if there’s something – or someone – tangible to vote for.
And yes, I do think any potential investor that makes an offer for some of our equity will get it passed.
Unless that potential investor is Sam Hammam and Charles Koppel, of course.
Our current on-field success is what I think will push this change through as and when it gets formally offered.
Giving abstract ideas like “fan ownership” goes over the head of most supporters, if we’re being honest.
Have a look at the turnout of the upcoming DTB elections, or indeed 99% of any DT meeting.
90% of the fanbase aren’t that bothered, I’d even say a great proportion of that know about the DT existing in name only.
Although the remaining 10% are very very bothered by it, it seems.
But think about this particular squad having to be broken up in January just to pay the upcoming bills.
Somebody coming in with an investment may allow us to keep a good squad together a little bit longer, and that’s what will focus minds.
Some think that if somebody comes in to put money in, it means we start spending shitloads on new players.
That may not be necessarily so, although we can’t avoid that even crap players are more expensive to employ these days.
Much more likely is this reason – it’s to relieve the financial pressures on us, to give us a bit of financial wiggle room.
Basically to stop us being crippled to the point where we can’t progress because we’ve got too many bills to pay. Which we look in danger of doing.
The We Are Wimbledon Fund’s attempt to fund our transfer kitty for January fell flatter than a giant flat thing, not that anyone who knows anything would be surprised one bit.
And the update makes it clear that we’ve got to start properly investing in our football-related infrastructure too.
I shudder to think how much of a shoestring we’re still operating under.
One suspects we’ve already got one or two investors lined up already, who will be “known” (ie an associate of Nick Robinson or Iain McNay), and will be presented in due course.
One also suspects said potential investors were interested when previously asked, but required much more say in how their money will be spent. I don’t believe this change of direction is coincidence.
Some think we should instead “live within our means”, although that will entail us going back to the National League – or National League South – and struggling to run Plough Lane.
No, me neither.
We don’t need to live within our means so much as we need to increase our means to begin with.
It’s clear the club has tried holding off on this for as long as possible, but being in League One has pretty much forced our hand.
Everyone will see what comes up, and I don’t doubt there’s some who think we should not be going down this path.
But if JJ and (especially) CC come out and say that with some investment we can keep Matty Stevens this season, you might have to weigh the vote…