Well, that was all right I suppose…
I’m not going to do a “proper” report on what has proven to be one of our best performances of the season, though I could forgive myself if I did.
I could be churlish about saying Walsall were equally as shit as we were, and they had the scoring ability of a castrated gnat.
Their manager wasn’t a happy bunny, put it that way. Mind you, their fans aren’t either.
Equally, I could say it was a dead rubber, and anyone putting much stock into it is a bit too desperate.
But tonight, even if only temporarily, the place finally got lifted.
This wasn’t a ropey smash-and-grab, where you wandered out of the ground slightly guilty at getting the three points.
This was the kind of performance you want to see from a team called AFC Wimbledon.
Bodies on the line, a bit of skill and movement, playing with a bit of purpose, that kind of thing.
It was like the first half at Barrow, but this time around – we didn’t fade.
Granted, there’s always the nagging fear in the back of our mind that we’d be made to pay for not putting away chances.
I have to be honest, I though Nightingale’s header was going over, and I think he was as shocked as anyone that it went in.
And of course, being AFCW, going ahead usually proves fatal. Except tonight, it didn’t…
Special mention to the Iraqi Scouser, who flew back from St Petersburg within 48 hours of playing against Russia, presumably via Turkey.
After clearly convincing Heathrow immigration that having gone to Putinland using an Iraqi passport isn’t a reason for a rectal examination, he made our bench then came on.
Then scored the poachers goal and got denied a second through an offside that I’m not sure was.
It’s a shame he ended up getting kicked to the point he had to go off. He looked fine in the post-game lap of honour though, and he must wonder what a win with us feels like.
But nobody played badly. Broome was on hand to make a couple of good saves, including one in the eighth (?) minute of injury time.
Pearson replaced Al-Hamadi and proved himself to be a bit of a Pell protege, niggling away at people even into injury time.
Even the much maligned Janneh put a shift in, though Davison returning will help matters.
A couple of thoughts entered my mind afterwards. Firstly, has this saved Johnnie Jackson’s job?
It’s not been fun for him recently, and his demeanour hasn’t been inspiring. I haven’t seen his post-match interview, but he should be happier.
I’m not sure how close he was (is?) to his P45, and I don’t doubt he would have been pissed off with any bait-and-switching in January.
Indeed, this leads me onto my second and perhaps most important thought – have we inadvertedly stumbled across a decent starting XI?
Today and for half of Saturday, we looked like the sort of team we could be. Granted, we would need to sort out the strike force, and we miss Pell big time.
But you just had to look at the reaction of the players to think they might be able to achieve something together.
It’s too late for this season, but it’s from these embryonic stages that we might see a turning point after all.
You wouldn’t normally pick these players as a starting XI, but it’s possible the likes of Gunter and Brown might not be able to get back in.
Speaking of our Qatar World Cup representative, I’m in two minds about him missing the last two games.
On the one hand, it doesn’t look good that he’s gone as a coach for Wales at such a crucial stage.
I can see why people are comparing him negatively to Al-Hamadi. Especially as one went to a warmongering nation that is currently a pariah in the world community.
And the other one went to the former Soviet Union, boom fucking tisch.
On the other hand, are we really going to stand in the way of a player who is in truth likely to retire at the end of the season?
Especially taking a coaching role that has tons more prestige than anything at a middling L2 side?
I don’t blame Gunter over this, if truth be told, as those closer to the squad say he’s actually more of a model pro than his reputation suggests.
But then, we haven’t really needed him since he’s been gone…
The third thought is the one we shouldn’t have but it’s our own fault for making it so – we’re probably safe now.
No, we need another, proper, post-mortem about why we were in with an outside chance of the playoffs then with an outside chance of going down within a month.
But it is what it is right now. This certainly reduces the pressure on Rochdale this Saturday, and repeat tonight against them and it could be a legitimately good weekend.
We haven’t had too many of those this year.
There’s obviously still a lot of work to do, and players to come back, but you can enjoy the rest of this week now.
It might be that the injury crisis we’ve had might be the best thing to happen at AFCW for a very long time.
The club needs a shot in the arm from somewhere, even if it’s a little thing like freezing the season ticket prices for next season.
It has burned through a lot of goodwill in recent years, but it’s also proved a truism.
Which is – get it right on the field and you can almost get away with anything off it…