The Official AFC Wimbledon Match Thread (sponsored by Matt Hancock "for all your PPE needs" | Page 8 | Vital Football

The Official AFC Wimbledon Match Thread (sponsored by Matt Hancock "for all your PPE needs"

That was dire the fact that a crap Wimbledon side were at least worth a point shows how poor we were .I know Don's are a bit of a boogie side for us but that was pathetic.
 
Not a lot to be said about that match really - a poor performance against a pretty talent-free side who put in an abysmal performance themselves and were there for the taking.

In the first half, both teams were poor. Wimbledon as their form and position would suggest were rubbish, but we were worse and Wimbledon had the better possession, but didn't create a lot; we created next to nothing other than Ogilvie again not doing what we know he's capable of with a good headed chance. I think that's about half a dozen times since Christmas that he's not stuck away a good headed chance that he'd have buried last season, whilst ironically he banged in a 30 yard worldie away at Charlton! The Dons had the best chances with Bomham and Cundy (I think) making a hash of a tame through ball and presenting Chislett(?) with a sitter which he blazed over. They had another good chance on the stroke of half time and their player should have done better from the edge of the box and presented Bonham with a fairly routine save.

To be fair, Evans rung the change in the second half and we were by far the better team, whilst not being brilliant were a lot better than the Dons, who continued to be poor, but to be fair, I think they are just a poor side rather than being off the pace tonight as we were. Graham caused a spark, but to be honest, his final ball and crossing was largely poor tonight. Dempsey largely seemed to disappear as the game went on, although linked up well with Graham on one occasion to excellent effect. Wimbledon created absolutely nothing in the second half until the goal, whereas we dominated in the key areas, but for me our biggest failing was our poor final ball and crosses - so many times we had a good position around the box or out wide and didn't make the most of it. Saying that, we had a couple of great chances - from memory, Graham as soon as the half started, may have done better with a strike in the box and Oliver somehow missed the goal by a yard with a poke from about 5 yards out. That bring us to the pen shouts - both of which were obviouslty and instantly dismissed by Peter Lloyd as is his wont. The second one, which was the one the players and bench seemed to go mad about was an alleged handball which personally I didn't see - and no replay was shown - but the team seemed very convinced by it. The first one was a push on Akinde which I didn't see at the time, probably because it was completely off of the ball. However, the replay showed a massively clear should charge from their man on to Akinde's back, bundling him over in the box, and what's worse is that the referee was right behind it in a prime position. Akinde probably wouldn't have got the poor overhit cross by Graham, but that's not the point as Akinde was clearly bundled over deliberately as the cross came in - a clear and stonewall pen.

As for the goal, it was completely undeserved from a poor Dons' side and as a reasult of our defenders backing off and allowing a tame shot from the edge of the box come in with Bonham letting a weak shot go through him at a nice height just to his right - another howler from Bonham, I'm afraid, not for the first time in recent weeks.
 
SteveTreacle said:
Not a lot to be said about that match really - a poor performance against a pretty talent-free side who put in an abysmal performance themselves and were there for the taking.

In the first half, both teams were poor. Wimbledon as their form and position would suggest were rubbish, but we were worse and Wimbledon had the better possession, but didn't create a lot; we created next to nothing other than Ogilvie again not doing what we know he's capable of with a good headed chance. I think that's about half a dozen times since Christmas that he's not stuck away a good headed chance that he'd have buried last season, whilst ironically he banged in a 30 yard worldie away at Charlton! The Dons had the best chances with Bomham and Cundy (I think) making a hash of a tame through ball and presenting Chislett(?) with a sitter which he blazed over. They had another good chance on the stroke of half time and their player should have done better from the edge of the box and presented Bonham with a fairly routine save.

To be fair, Evans rung the change in the second half and we were by far the better team, whilst not being brilliant were a lot better than the Dons, who continued to be poor, but to be fair, I think they are just a poor side rather than being off the pace tonight as we were. Graham caused a spark, but to be honest, his final ball and crossing was largely poor tonight. Dempsey largely seemed to disappear as the game went on, although linked up well with Graham on one occasion to excellent effect. Wimbledon created absolutely nothing in the second half until the goal, whereas we dominated in the key areas, but for me our biggest failing was our poor final ball and crosses - so many times we had a good position around the box or out wide and didn't make the most of it. Saying that, we had a couple of great chances - from memory, Graham as soon as the half started, may have done better with a strike in the box and Oliver somehow missed the goal by a yard with a poke from about 5 yards out. That bring us to the pen shouts - both of which were obviouslty and instantly dismissed by Peter Lloyd as is his wont. The second one, which was the one the players and bench seemed to go mad about was an alleged handball which personally I didn't see - and no replay was shown - but the team seemed very convinced by it. The first one was a push on Akinde which I didn't see at the time, probably because it was completely off of the ball. However, the replay showed a massively clear should charge from their man on to Akinde's back, bundling him over in the box, and what's worse is that the referee was right behind it in a prime position. Akinde probably wouldn't have got the poor overhit cross by Graham, but that's not the point as Akinde was clearly bundled over deliberately as the cross came in - a clear and stonewall pen.

As for the goal, it was completely undeserved from a poor Dons' side and as a reasult of our defenders backing off and allowing a tame shot from the edge of the box come in with Bonham letting a weak shot go through him at a nice height just to his right - another howler from Bonham, I'm afraid, not for the first time in recent weeks.
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Sorry Steve but I disagree, I don’t think either were “stonewall”. They were more some you get, some you don’t. Very much like the (undeserved) two in recent games. One for Lincoln which we all moaned about, and then the one V Bristol rovers, which were were happier about but was bloody soft. But again we shouldn’t be basing our defeat on a shouldit/shouldn’t it be a penalty. As you did state, our final ball and general 18 yard box play is fucking woeful. As I said earlier, I do wonder what we do in training sometimes..... when you look at the talent we have going forwards one shot on target in 90 minutes of play is not very good. That is far more the issue than hiding behind a straw clutching penalty decision.
 
Maybe it was a penalty on Akinde, maybe it wasn't, but their keeper has had one comfortable save to make all night from a Graham shot early in second half.
I thought Oliver should have scored when he stabbed it wide off balance, but for all our territorial advantage in the second half, we didn't translate that into enough goal attempts or certainly shots on target.
We hugely overuse the long throw from Jackson, and Jackson's own defending almost let them score just before they did.
From memory most of our attacks in 2nd half did come down the right, we had nothing down the left at all.
It's frustrating because as Steve says, Wimbledon were there for the taking, their defending was suspect and they lacked quality up front, the goal should have been a routine save for Bonham.
 
It’s the clumsiness of a lot of our play that gets to me. I could name dozens of examples. Here are a couple.
- Akinde has a simple pass to the wing. He kind of rolls his foot over the ball. It runs about a foot and Wimbledon regain possession.
- Jackson has the ball under control with another Gills player close. The ball gets tangled between them and the Wimbledon player comes away with the ball.

There were literally dozens of others. Each time the mistakes either broke down promising attacks or put the defence on the back foot. It meant that we never built any pressure that might have led to the Wimbledon defence crumbling.

The only time the players showed any urgency was immediately after we went behind.

Sadly this looked like a group of players with no further ambitions for this season. The sooner we get about 12 more points the better.
 
kettners said:
Any thoughts on Evans and Rayner tonight ? Did they get their starting eleven wrong ?
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I found it a bit odd Graham didn't start.But then maybe he wasn't 100% fit .As for the others with the possible exception of O'Keefe I am not sure who else I would have picked O'Keefe like Graham might not have been fully match fit .
 
What did you all expect, we are a lower midfield outfit. We don't tend to win away to AFC, until we can improve our financial position nothing is going to change. Better coaches than we have would be a good thing, but that costs money.
 
I must have known it was a bad omen when I saw a bloke with an AFC Wimbledon scarf around his neck whilst walking round Tesco's this morning.
 
The Roone said:
What did you all expect, we are a lower midfield outfit. We don't tend to win away to AFC, until we can improve our financial position nothing is going to change. Better coaches than we have would be a good thing, but that costs money.
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I think I made it clear what I expect it my earlier post, I expect more than 1 lousy shot on target in an hour and half of football. And it is not an isolated incident either. It has happened in many games this season, especially since Christmas.
 
Rob_b100 said:
I think I made it clear what I expect it my earlier post, I expect more than 1 lousy shot on target in an hour and half of football. And it is not an isolated incident either. It has happened in many games this season, especially since Christmas.
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I think that's spot on. I didn't bother with ifollow last night. Just had the radio on and it sounded dull.

I want to see shots on goal and one or two per game just isn't enough.

Everyone raves about Oliver in the air but does anything ever come from those headers ? It's rare but we do like a tryer.

Lots of talk about whether evans should stay or go. I'm on the fence but mainly because I could see us reverting to type and going cheap on the next appointment. Hessenthaler anyone !!!!
 
markinkent said:
I think that's spot on. I didn't bother with ifollow last night. Just had the radio on and it sounded dull.

I want to see shots on goal and one or two per game just isn't enough.

Everyone raves about Oliver in the air but does anything ever come from those headers ? It's rare but we do like a tryer.

Lots of talk about whether evans should stay or go. I'm on the fence but mainly because I could see us reverting to type and going cheap on the next appointment. Hessenthaler anyone !!!!
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Peter Taylor is the one manager who has got us out of this division... He's already getting a pension, so shouldn't want much in wages 🙂
 
Rob_b100 said:
Sorry Steve but I disagree, I don’t think either were “stonewall”. They were more some you get, some you don’t.
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The handball shout, which was the one the team and Evans and Raynor were going ballistsic about, I didn’t see as we didn’t have a good view of it from the camera shot and we only saw it in real time - not sure why they show replays of pointless things but not pen shouts? The linesman was perfectly placed for it, which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s right. As I say, with the benefit of the replay, the Akinde one looked like a clear barge off of the ball by their centre back - his shoulder to Akinde’s back bundling him over. The ref had a perfect view as was right behind it. Maybe he didn’t give it, because Graham’s cross was over hit, but that’s not the point for me, a foul is a foul and the ball was still in play. Would like to see it again, but what’s done is done. I also don’t think there was any doubt about the foul on Akinde on Saturday - none of the Rovers players complained. The Lincoln one was obviously different and even the ref has admitted he was wrong.
 
SteveTreacle said:
The handball shout, which was the one the team and Evans and Raynor were going ballistsic about, I didn’t see as we didn’t have a good view of it from the camera shot and we only saw it in real time - not sure why they show replays of pointless things but not pen shouts? The linesman was perfectly placed for it, which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s right. As I say, with the benefit of the replay, the Akinde one looked like a clear barge off of the ball by their centre back - his shoulder to Akinde’s back bundling him over. The ref had a perfect view as was right behind it. Maybe he didn’t give it, because Graham’s cross was over hit, but that’s not the point for me, a foul is a foul and the ball was still in play. Would like to see it again, but what’s done is done. I also don’t think there was any doubt about the foul on Akinde on Saturday - none of the Rovers players complained. The Lincoln one was obviously different and even the ref has admitted he was wrong.
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But that’s kinda my point, you sometimes get them sometimes dont. And just cos Evans and Raynor go ballistic over a non award it still doesn’t make it stonewall. They bitch and moan about every little decision from the sidelines so we can ignore the fact that they think it is one.

To me a nailed on pen is one that there is no possible way it could not be given. In both instances last night there is doubt. You have even suggested yourself a reason why the first one wasnt given.

Again, I do feel arguing over sketchy penalty decisions is still glossing over the fact that we had one shot on target in 90 minutes. This is the real reason we lost. It reminds me of just after Christmas and the shambles we were served up V Burton, Northampton and Plymouth. 3 games, 3 woeful defeats and about 2 shots in 4 1/2 hours.
 
ARFUR CONNELL said:
Peter Taylor rode on the back of Pulis. I wonder whether Taylor could have dragged Gills from near oblivion to the Championship?
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We could find out next season.
I see Neil Lennon has gone from Celtic. Could be a managerial swap...
 
I didn't watch last night, sort of drifted into the decision late on. We are becoming tedious to watch I'm afraid and that together with ifollow only means I must ration myself to maintain enthusiasm. Strangely I feel as if I watched every minute having read all your comments, too predictable, a series of repeated patterns. This time a shade of luck and an error or two and we lose, another time it might have gone the other way.

We fans call for more effort every game but this attritional football is very hard on players. It causes fatigue and injuries and requires superhuman enthusiasm. We can play differently but seem in a groove at the moment. Someone give the needle a nudge.
 
I was feeling a bit down after last night's performance and result, so this morning, to cheer myself up, I just had an entertaining half hour on the Bristol Rovers and Charlton AFC's fans forums.

Rovers are in despair because they think they are going down and the Spotters are in despair because they think they are not going up, as is their right.

Mid table obscurity appears to be a happier place at the moment.
 
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