wimbledon thursday

[Sandyford_Lion]

Jones looked good going forward but very suspect when defending. Where did their first come from??

 

Vincent, Loft, Duffy and Hughes were all awful tonight.

 

Good result considering we were 2-0 down.

 

 

We havent seen enough of Jones yet but last night he had a good game.

If we want to lay blame for the goal then Purse wasnt exactly a strong dominant center back was he.

Also at fault for Gillinghams goal too

 

The penalty - no one has mentioned that the first pull was by the forward who pulled back

chilvers before making his run forward. If the ref gives that as a penalty then he has to give

70 pens a season. Very poor decision to me and i am one who is all for penalties to stop

all the pushing and pulling

Chilvers is a poor player , very slow , lets hope we have McCombe and Purse together soon

As poor as he is he is no worse than Macdonald / Owen and who knows about Davis yet

 

Hughes was poor and offered nothing at all. Hopefully a one off and he will come good for us.

 

Our two wingers will always look good and fade out of games, i just wish that they offered

more support to our midfield two. I think we are easily outnumbered in midfield against most teams.

 

Loft was poor first half. He looked better second half but was that because Wimbledon sat back ?

[Sandyford_Lion]

Don`t agree about Loft`s possible second yellow as their player stepped across him to deliberately be fouled. In my opinion a yellow card should only be for deliberate or dangerous fouls.

Totally agree about Hughes as he was way off the pace and the second was more of a pen than the first, but didn`t think either were nailed on.

 

Agree totally. The ref could not see at all how much contact was made on the players back by Loft

He had lost the ball and was happy to go down and see if a foul was given.

 

The first pen - the forward pulled Chilvers back before he made his run

The second - the forward tried to make more of it than it was. Good decision

 

If the ref does give that first as a pen then he has to give them every match. Poor decision

 

Hughes was poor. Loft was poor first half and only came into it when Wimbledon sat back

To be fair to Loft we see it too often where our midfield are overrun.

This is where our wingers dont offer the support to the midfield enough

[melv]

I thought that was the best ref I've seen all season.....

Crap ref there should have been a red card for their player who continued to foul even after he had been yellow carded.

[davehartshill]

Watched the first goal again and agree that it wasn't Jones fault. He looked decent last night. The only thing that worries me is that we might be left exposed at the back because of how much he likes to get forward and overlap. It would be interesting to see how he would play as a winger. Vincent has been average for a few weeks and needs a kick up the ****.

 

If we had turned up for the first hour we would have won the game comfortably. Feels like 2 points dropped but we have a run of very winnable games and we need to take full advantage.

[bomber]

Hughes chased the ball down to make the defender hurry his back pass for Popes goal / Hughes nearly scored in the first half when the defender got a toe in to put it out for a corner / Hughes should of scored but rushed his shot that went straight to the keeper in the second half / Hughes and Pope were close to scoring in the second half 2-3 times when the ball was blazed just out of reach in the second half.

 

My point is that with Pope and Hughes on we always have a chance of scoring, don't get me wrong Williamson is a good player but not a natural finisher.

 

Our Pope/Hughes forward partnership have scored 3 goal between them in 2 games they have played together.

 

Craig Davis was in the same mould as Williamson give the lad a chance i am sure we will be raveing about him next season young big strong gives the defences a nightmare, yes should score more but he is at least getting in the position to miss defo one for the future

[TheSage]

Hughes is a goalscorer and very crafty in his positioning and general play.

Give him a chance. Everyone has mediocre games and he's only been here a week. No one complained when he scored last week.

 

Williamson, I agree, is getting better and better. His first touch has improved and he looks stronger than last year. He will learn a lot from Hughes and Pope and perhaps develop into a very very good player.

[TylerB]

We don't have a God given right to turn up and beat teams. This is League Two, anyone can beat any other side on their day. Why can't we give AFC a bit of credit? We never got going in the first half but they pressed us well and fully deserved their half time lead. Second half we showed why we are on of the top 2 teams in the division, but the ball just wouldn't break for us to get the winner and they clung on, showing all the determination they will need to stay clear of relegation.

 

My only gripe is that Vincent hasn't been playing well since he came back from a stomach bug before Christmas. I think putting Loft out there and bringing Morsy back into the side to partner Burge could and should be an option. It would also give us a bit more in central midfield where we often get over-run by teams.

 

Being 2-0 down against a side with their tails up I see the result as a point gained rather than two lost. It was a good game of football and we're going up this season, so a few of you numpties need to cheer up a bit.

[PortVale89]

Vale fans are mental. Hardly any go Southend on a Saturday, yet we take 280 afc Wimbledon on a freezing Thursday night when it's on sky anyway. Weird. When I got there last night I wasn't expecting many more than a 100. Top effort.

[cheshirevaliant]

Strange game, after being awful for quite a bit of it, we were the only team who looked likely to win at the end. 2 good goals, Pope's finishes against Rotherham on Boxing Day and last night show how far he has progressed over the past 12 months. Jones did well despite being partially to blame for the first goal.

Duffy still flatters to deceive for me, he was very lucky not to concede a penalty second half. Is he better than Yates? I'm not so sure.

Vincent poor again. Is he still struggling to shake up his injury/illness? Loft played well second half when they were sitting back and he had space on the ball. Burge MOTM, I hope we can keep hold of him next season, he has been our best player in the past month or so.

[valeparklife]

I'd definately give Wimbledon credit, thought they played us really well 1st half and worked their socks off to close us down. No one had any time on the ball. 2nd half was a different story and i thought we were unlucky not to make it 3-2.

 

Agree that Vincent hasn't been playing well at all since he returned from illness. Maybe a rest would do him good? Bring Yates back in at left back and move Jones to left wing?

[jjvale_03]

I thought we were pretty decent last night.

 

They were a home side, live on sky and were always going to be up for it. They chased us down all night and I was especially impressed with the lad McCullum up front. It took us a while to get into it - we looked a bit disjointed and it took Burgey and Loft 30 minutes to get control of the midfield. In the second half we controlled it from the first minute. For a 15/20 minutes we were at our best - interchanging wing play, dangerous balls into the box, winning everything at the back and in the middle. They were hanging on. If Hughesy had his shooting boots with him, we'd have won the game.

 

Even good sides don't win every week. A point away from home at a difficult, tight pitch (especially from 2 down) isn't the end of the world. We've got two winnable home games coming up, and I think 6 points is definitely within our reach.

 

Ps. The Wimbledon fans I spoke to said we were the best side they'd seen all season.

[Mcphee4Scotland]

We don't have a God given right to turn up and beat teams. This is League Two, anyone can beat any other side on their day. Why can't we give AFC a bit of credit? We never got going in the first half but they pressed us well and fully deserved their half time lead. Second half we showed why we are on of the top 2 teams in the division, but the ball just wouldn't break for us to get the winner and they clung on, showing all the determination they will need to stay clear of relegation.

 

My only gripe is that Vincent hasn't been playing well since he came back from a stomach bug before Christmas. I think putting Loft out there and bringing Morsy back into the side to partner Burge could and should be an option. It would also give us a bit more in central midfield where we often get over-run by teams.

 

Being 2-0 down against a side with their tails up I see the result as a point gained rather than two lost. It was a good game of football and we're going up this season, so a few of you numpties need to cheer up a bit.

 

Pretty much go along with all that Beechy lad:yes:

 

When we were 2-0 down on around 42 minutes; and playing awfully (thought give AFC Wimbledon there due credit too as you say); I honestly didn't see anyway of us coming back, and this should be seen as a point gained rather than two points dropped under the circumstances. Our goal just before half-time was massive.

 

I thought that Daniel Jones was superb last night and looked a class above our level. Easy to see why several League One clubs were after him after his release by Sheff Wednesday. Great hit for our 1st goal, got forward well and generally looked composed on the ball. Of the other new signings; I also thought that Purse had a solid game; you could see his experience and know-how show as the game wore on. Both of these players will play a massive part for us between now and the end of the season.

 

One of the few disappointments of the night was Lee Hughes. Thought he looked a little off the pace last night and missed a sitter when Myrie-Williams squared it back to him in the 2nd half. Hopefully it was just an 'off-day' for him.

[Burt]

I thought we were pretty decent last night.

 

They were a home side, live on sky and were always going to be up for it. They chased us down all night and I was especially impressed with the lad McCullum up front. It took us a while to get into it - we looked a bit disjointed and it took Burgey and Loft 30 minutes to get control of the midfield. In the second half we controlled it from the first minute. For a 15/20 minutes we were at our best - interchanging wing play, dangerous balls into the box, winning everything at the back and in the middle. They were hanging on. If Hughesy had his shooting boots with him, we'd have won the game.

 

Even good sides don't win every week. A point away from home at a difficult, tight pitch (especially from 2 down) isn't the end of the world. We've got two winnable home games coming up, and I think 6 points is definitely within our reach.

 

Ps. The Wimbledon fans I spoke to said we were the best side they'd seen all season.

 

Strange how a night's sleep can change what you think of a game. I remember at the time being frustrated that we hadn't won, and that we could have done much better - yet after reflecting on it today, it was a great comeback and a very good second half display. Doesn't stop the fact that we just weren't in the game for the first half an hour and made Wimbledon look better than they were.

[llcoolj]

Strange how a night's sleep can change what you think of a game. I remember at the time being frustrated that we hadn't won, and that we could have done much better - yet after reflecting on it today, it was a great comeback and a very good second half display. Doesn't stop the fact that we just weren't in the game for the first half an hour and made Wimbledon look better than they were.

 

After 20 mins we'd had 80 percent of the possession, I'd say we were in the game?

[oakesypvfc]

We don't have a God given right to turn up and beat teams. This is League Two, anyone can beat any other side on their day. Why can't we give AFC a bit of credit? We never got going in the first half but they pressed us well and fully deserved their half time lead. Second half we showed why we are on of the top 2 teams in the division, but the ball just wouldn't break for us to get the winner and they clung on, showing all the determination they will need to stay clear of relegation.

 

My only gripe is that Vincent hasn't been playing well since he came back from a stomach bug before Christmas. I think putting Loft out there and bringing Morsy back into the side to partner Burge could and should be an option. It would also give us a bit more in central midfield where we often get over-run by teams.

 

Being 2-0 down against a side with their tails up I see the result as a point gained rather than two lost. It was a good game of football and we're going up this season, so a few of you numpties need to cheer up a bit.

 

Spot on! Vincent needs to be rested Loft out to the left will build a great partnership with Jones, can sit when jones goes forwards, we'll get alot more quality balls into the box which will be perfect for the best two forwards in the football league aerially, also allows us to play either Morsey, Birchall or even the craft of Shuker into the centre of midfield. This will lead to a stronger midfield alot better ball retention and we wont be outnumbered in midfield like we are quite regularly.