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Wimbledon Gills

Trev_GFC said:
The stewards up at AFC Wimbledon told me they used staff with body-worn cameras partly to film the fans (not that there was much trouble but rather the excessive C.nt-calling the officials etc), but also to film Evans and Raynor!

They were suggesting the FA were getting fed up with the behaviour or rather the complaints, and were wanting real footage for a dossier? They had to sit one of their chiefs near to the 4th official after alleged poor behaviour by our coaching team.

“We’ll see you in the tunnel at half time”
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Just read someone online say that there was a stouche between the Dons manager (is it Glynn Hodges?) and Evans in the tunnel, but instigated by Hodges. Apparently he gave Evans / Raynor verbal all through.

If that’s true, you’d have to think oppo managers know and just try to keep winding Steve Evans up.

TBF, I’ve just seen his comments after the game where he talked about us and the game and when asked about the ref just said “we’ll keep our thoughts about the ref to ourselves and speak with him privately”.

Must say, I haven’t seen so many fans (twitter and Facebook) be so OTT about a refs performance. Even the Dons fans saying we were wasteful but agreeing ref was totally useless and we should have had a pen or pens. That don’t usually happen.

Someone posted footage of one pen shout (the push on our player) that looked a dead set pen to me. Was being held all the way and then pushed to the floor.

Oh well. Sh*t happens. On to next week.
 
Today was another example of what is so frustrating about our our season - totally dominating a game again, but not creating enough good chances and wasting those we did create, plus an abysmal standard of refereeing.

One positive from the day is that to add to Lincoln, Bolton and Southend, there is evidence of another ultra poor team, who surely even with our lack of quality up front, we must be able to finish above?

It really was painful viewing and I genuinely think the referee was biased - I don’t think any referee goes in to a game to be so, but I think if a team rubs up a ref the wrong way, they often seem to deliberately favour one team. It looked like that happened today and some of the decisions were beyond just mistakes - two absolute stonewall penalties ignored, 2-3 other half shouts too, then a sending off of Pringle that can only be described as petulance as Pringle contested another poor decision as pretty much every player on the pitch did all afternoon, then was sent off out of the blue, yet Piggott and Pinnock who were both booked early on were allowed to get away with numerous further indiscretions.

A very very frustrating afternoon for both our failings and those of the referee.
 
SteveTreacle said:
Today was another example of what is so frustrating about our our season - totally dominating a game again, but not creating enough good chances and wasting those we did create, plus an abysmal standard of refereeing.

One positive from the day is that to add to Lincoln, Bolton and Southend, there is evidence of another ultra poor team, who surely even with our lack of quality up front, we must be able to finish above?

It really was painful viewing and I genuinely think the referee was biased - I don’t think any referee goes in to a game to be so, but I think if a team rubs up a ref the wrong way, they often seem to deliberately favour one team. It looked like that happened today and some of the decisions were beyond just mistakes - two absolute stonewall penalties ignored, 2-3 other half shouts too, then a sending off of Pringle that can only be described as petulance as Pringle contested another poor decision as pretty much every player on the pitch did all afternoon, then was sent off out of the blue, yet Piggott and Pinnock who were both booked early on were allowed to get away with numerous further indiscretions.

A very very frustrating afternoon for both our failings and those of the referee.
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I`m not one for blaming a poor result on the officials, there`s no point really, as it won`t change anything and, besides, in the eyes of partisan fans the ref is always seen as a flawed decision maker. Having said all that, the GFC fans in attendance were clearly unhappy with the way the game was officiated. I don`t know whether the ref was an inexperienced official or guilty of ineptitude. One aspect that is continually raised, however, and i`ve seen it at games too, is that our management team are relentlessly "on the case" of the officiating group. You have to wonder whether it`s that surprising that game officials are perhaps, on occasions, "enduring" an unconscious bias as a result of the tirade coming from our bench. You have to wonder whether, when a fiery midfield substitute, who gets on the pitch with a couple of minutes left, takes the aggressive verbal "heat" from the bench with him as we put in a last ditch effort to get a point from the game. Perhaps, our bench just needs to calm down a bit !
 
Bromley_GFC said:
This post is absolutely spot on. I was just thinking this morning judging by the picture on Kent Online of Pringle bang in the ref's face arguing where that anger came from as he's not an aggressive type of player.

My conclusion too was that Ben Pringle while sitting on the bench must have seen the actions of Evans and Raynor and stirred himself right up getting caught up in it all.

I've gotta say I thought Raynor behaved far worse than Evans to be honest, constantly shouting in the officials ear with proper venom. We were all pissed off as Gills fans watching that at our lack of finishing and the ref's performance and I'm not normally one for "conspiracy theories" but you have to wonder why we're getting these decisions against us, I'm sure the ref didn't exactly warm to our charming chaps on the bench ha ha.
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But when Pennock, Lovell, Taylor etc we’re getting mugged over by the likes of Rotherham and Peterboro with Evans in charge, everyone was banging on that refs were bending to the constant haranguing. Our fans were saying “why doesn’t our manager fight our corner?”. And “Lovell just stands with his hands in his pockets”. “Our bench is too nice”.

Which way is it? I know there’s probably a better middle ground.
 
Sir keefy Evans orchestrates this before kick off. His mentality is to constantly put doubt in the officials minds with abusive and totally offensive language and has his players wound up. Now that is fine but he goes way over the top from what can be described as enthusiastic and sporting. Of course we want someone who's is proactive and wants to get the best out of his team but I don't want to hear his abusive dialogue whilst sitting in the crowd. It always makes me smile - abusive language seems acceptable at a football match and it wouldn't be tolerated in the streets or now even in the work place. Perhaps the pub between mates as long as its not overheard, But football anything seems to be acceptable. I do wince when young kids and families are near. Evans and his puppet are just way over the top and its part of their bullying culture. I hope they get their collar felt. He was supposed to have calmed down and served a 4 match ban at the start of the season. I know this opinion won't sit well with a lot of our members and would welcome your views.
 
Bromley_GFC said:
My conclusion too was that Ben Pringle while sitting on the bench must have seen the actions of Evans and Raynor and stirred himself right up getting caught up in it all.
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If this was true then why don't we see this more of our subs getting booked and/or sent off? Did we see Marshall getting into the referee's face at all? Looking at the replay, I think I see a really frustrated player who didn't get what he considered to be a straight forward decision.

Bromley_GFC said:
I've gotta say I thought Raynor behaved far worse than Evans to be honest, constantly shouting in the officials ear with proper venom.
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This is probably deliberate as it is better for the assistant manager to be asked to leave the dug out than the manager.
 
Some good points about the effect of our management team's behaviour on officials. I agree with all of that and that we should have had at least one certain penalty . Leave aside the poor decision making by the ref, and it was awful, his overall performance was dire too. Absolutely no attempt to keep the game flowing, loads of unnecessary whistle even after the offence had been pulled up, weirdly talking to captain Wagstaffe before finally tagging Pigott for persistent fouling.

All the above is true but we have no one to blame but ourselves for failing to win yesterday. I'd have prefferred to see action from the bench to try and force a goal rather than all the nonsense we did see.
 
I might be in a minority here but a single goalscorer away from a decent side isnt bad. In previous seasons we've talked about needing a whole new midfield etc. Although i think Lovel should have stayed i am optimistic what SE might achieve if Scally can find even moderately more funds.
 
On Saturday I had to go out not long before kick-off, so I started up the live stream on iFollow and then paused it, so I could watch the match as if it were live when I got back. Got back a few minutes after the game finished, and pressed play, but as I did so, just caught a glimpse of the timeline at the bottom of the screen, and saw there was a red card coming near the end. By about 60 minutes into the game, I was absolutely convinced it was going to be Pigott. Never any major fouls, but it was just a constant stream of niggling little fouls. Ref seemed to let him off quite a few before finally giving him a warning, then a yellow card, then he seemed to get at least two more final warnings from the ref while on a yellow (either directly to Pigott or, as Jogills mentions, the captain at one point). Made the ref look pretty weak really.
 
I tend to think that there might be something in the theory, conspiracy or otherwise, that the ref on Saturday was riled up by the antics of our players and management team and decided to give us nothing and award against us wherever possible. However, ironically, I saw it claimed on the Wimbledon forum that their manager was fuming with the referee at half time (not sure why as he gave pretty much everything to them) and gave the ref a hairdryer treatment at half time, which they have credited for the referee's display in the second half, which even the Wimbledon fans admitted that he completely favoured them.

Personally, and I've said this for ages, I'd sooner see passion and fight for the team from the pitch, bench and stands, even if does go OTT a bit. Probably my best memories as a Gills' fan is the Pulis era of Smith and Ashby crunching in tackles and fouls, Hess and Iffy in the ref's face, Pulis screaming at anyone and everyone from the touchline, and a genuine reputation of being hated and feared by opponents. It may have backfired on Saturday, but for me it's a step in the right direction and we certainly have more fight and general backing for each other as a team than recent times. I've no doubt that the team will be seething as one from what happened on Saturday and will come flying out of the blocks v Donny on Sunday.
 
Bromley_GFC said:
I also would be very surprised if we got relegated due to some terrible teams in this league, the weakest it's been in some time imo. I mean Wycombe are top ffs? and we somehow managed to beat them.

The thing is though Evans was brought in to get us challenging in the top half wasn't he? Looking over our shoulders ain't really acceptable tbf.
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My understanding was that Scally acquired Evans, in spite of the controversy, acrimony, and growing unrest, to fulfill a pressing need to get us in the play-offs, and falling short of that would be a disappointment in the club's eyes.

The problem is, we can all see that we're too inconsistent and lack the firepower to fulfil that ambition (at least as things stand). Evans will either need to persuade Scally the team needs more time to settle or gel, or that he needs more money to spend on proven goalscorers to break into the top 6.
 
On paper, playing AFC Wimbledon should mean a draw at least, but playing at Kingsmeadow is always an utter bastard, because there's only room for 700-900 away fans on an uncovered terrace, and the home stands are close to the pitch and can really create a din that can unsettle opposition players and intimidate the officials (may explain the referees decisions?).

Also, Wagstaff seemed properly riled with us, right from the off, and raised his game against us in a way that I suspect he wouldn't were he playing against any other team in this division.

So I think the writing was probably on the wall for a banana skin, but I'd like to think that we would have managed at least a point had we had been able to convert our chances on Saturday.
 
I'm glad to see some of the comments about the behaviour of our management team at Wimbledon because I was wondering if it was just me. I thought they were totally out of order.

For what it's worth I thought the ref struggled to keep control of the game as it got a bit tetchy, especially between Piggot and Ogilvie, but I didn't see anything to suggest either side got the worst of it.
 
I was just wondering if one day there will be any sort of positive remarks about our better manager and definitely better team.
 
sunnyinkent said:
I was just wondering if one day there will be any sort of positive remarks about our better manager and definitely better team.
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How can you be positive about mediocrity? It doesn't matter how you dress it up we are not that good. We've been bad in the past but the standard now in my view is poor but, if people are happy, then so be it. I don't think enough players are pulling their weight.
 
I can tell the labour supporter, if it wasn’t for Corbyn we would have left the EU but he has always got something too say and he is staying on level ground or so he says, for evert £1 proposed spending by conservative he wants too spend £28 , never got anything positive unless he suggests it, moan moan moan.
 
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