So, we do do draws after all…
This won’t be a particularly long update, I’ve got better things to do than type out something that sounded cack.
Ditto you’ve got more important things to do than read it, like deworming your dog. Even – or especially – if you don’t have one.
But twelve games in, our first one-pointer of the season, and by all accounts we were quite lucky to get.
True, we went ahead, but somehow the Football Gods were being a bit arsey this weekend, and decree we would slip up at the end.
Literally, in Smith’s case.
That people were talking about the first half in terms of horror might give an idea, somebody elsewhere even went as far as describing it the worst first half in the PL v2 history.
I was across east London, as I will be for many games this campaign, so I can’t comment on that. But I bet some of the ones under MR (or even JJ’s first season) were worse.
Yesterday sounded a mixture of a depleted squad, a bit of over-confidence, tough opponents and a general one-of-those-games.
Missing Lewis, Stevens, Johnson and Hippo, and not being able to have the strength in depth to directly replace them highlights our lack of spending power.
Stevens in particular will be a miss, although thankfully Hackford is back and scoring for us.
That said, we were able to put Bauer in again and he got plaudits. Imagine losing Lewis and not having him as a decent backup…
The giddyometer was getting a little bit heated up before the game, and people saying we were third in the table when leading was only going to lead to one outcome.
To be honest, I’m not upset a few minds got reset. We’re not good enough (or more accurately, strong enough) to push much beyond mid table this campaign.
We’ll lose these type of games more than we’ll win, although we should have enough purple patches to comfortably plan L1 again next season.
Yesterday wasn’t great but we got a point. We should have got one against both Luton and Cardiff but didn’t, so I don’t really care if we didn’t deserve this.
And yes – we really got a draw. Somebody check to see if the ravens at the Tower of London booked a weekend in Skegness.
Is twelve games without one some sort of club record? I guess we must have done similar in the CCL/R1 days, where we almost literally just had to turn up every week to win.
You just know we’ll now go on a run of about eight consecutive 0-0 results, although funnily enough that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Can you remember the last time we had an “ordinary” season, neither going up nor down but showing enough on the field not to worry either way?
We might just about to have it.
I guess we must have found a few quid down the sofa this week, because all the management team (JJ, Skiv, DR) signed up again, ditto Ogundere.
One may be a tad cynical and say that we’re making sure we don’t lose out on compensation in case anyone leaves in January/the summer.
But even if that’s what we’re doing, at least we’re looking at mistakes past and acting on them before it becomes a problem.
I forget who else is out of contract at the end of this season (Lewis?), and it would be nice if we could tie down a couple more.
Even so, I’d like to think our ability to replace anyone we lose has improved fourfold and we may get even better replacements in 26/27.
Look at how nobody knew who Hackford was, and how he’s suddenly become one of the best strikers at the club.
We will need more funds to do that, and I don’t doubt something dramatic will be pushed from about February next year.
But the potential is there. And it will be a genuine shame if we weren’t able to build on it.
Finally, as I said this would be shorter than usual, I did note a couple moaning before the game about the lack of food trucks these days.
I don’t think charging more for the pitch is so much the problem, but it sounds the big mistake we made was when we first brought them in.
People got used to there being a plethora of them but the amount we apparently charged was relative peanuts.
Either you have a lot of them and accept it will be a loss-leader for AFCW, or we have less of them but actually make some money.
The club are never shy when it comes to telling everyone how hard up it is, and you always hear from the Dons Trust when it’s after your money.
Although the latter is quieter than Stadium:MT when it’s supposed to actually own the club.
Regardless on where you stand about funding, you (literally) can’t afford to run anything like that on the cheap.
We don’t have to have the food trucks, we could just give Aramark a few more booths to sell whatever they sell in the kiosks.
People clearly like the different choices of nosh, but it has to be worth AFCW’s while too. If we’re starting to make money at the expense (no pun intended) of choice, there’ll only be one winner.
I have noticed that even now, some people are still unhappy with MyPie doing one.
Many people seemed to love them, though I never understood why. And some are treating it like a love-stricken teenager moping about the girl they’re not allowed to see.
Maybe they could have a secret rendez-vous with them at another event they go to, a bit like seeing a mistress on the side.
Or just take a pie from the chippy, put it with posh mash and gravy, double the price and put “MyPie” on it. I doubt most will know the difference…