This would suggest another game with at most one goal....however I'm an optimist and so I shall say 2-0 Wycombe, Liburd and Sellars with two stunning efforts!
.....hey it's Friday I'm allowed to get carried away....
Re Rowan. Yes, he completes his month's loan tomorrow. (Could be extended perhaps - don't know the rules or how he is viewed.)
Love the para in BFP saying that he has fallen out of favour in recent weeks!
Talking to a friend yesterday who is/has been a lifelong supporter of the original and the re-incarnation. He lives in Great Missenden but is sufficiently disillusioned with their performances this season not to be coming to the game tomorrow. He is a season ticket holder but has not made the hour and a half journey to Kingsmead for several games. Akinfenwa, he says, now has to make a 3-point turn every time he loses the ball and hoofball is rife. Danny Bullman at 37 remains one of their best players.
Micra
obviously individual choice and that's fine, but Wimbledon are on course to get their best ever league position (in their current form) and very much in the playoff race. Odd time to be throwing toys out of the pram. Sure it was yesterday and not this morning that you spoke to him?
Thanks Len and Benny as ever for this excellent article. Could I put forward a small suggestion to see if others agree?
Personally, I don't find the stats fest that interesting, but I do always want to see your prediction and, to a lesser extent, what you have to say about the referee. Might it be an idea to put one or both of those before the stats, to save scrolling for those of similar mind, particularly on a handheld device?
@micra@DevC Interesting similarity with Wycombe here: team doing well, having found a style of play that gets them about as high in League Two as they can reasonably expect to achieve; (some) fans moan about the style of play and, despite the success in league position terms, don't get behind the team.
Strange one for me. If the team are playing in a manner that they have identified is most likely to get them higher in the league, they deserve full support for doing that IMO. Well done to them for working out the most effective strategy.
Interesting comments from Ainsworth "In terms of clean sheets we've outdone last year which is brilliant. If we could have just scored a few more we would have been sitting somewhere similar to last year, but 61 points was always the total and we have got there and I am so pleased.
"Now it is shackles off and let's see how high we can get. There is no target set, let's just see what we can achieve because there is no pressure, play some expansive stuff and try and get some more goals on the board"
Guess this means we will see a change in style and greater push for playing 'winning' football.
I would hope there's no change in style because we've now reached the 61 point target. Either Ainsworth thinks that a different style would be more effective at getting points in which case he should have changed to that style before, or he thinks our current style is most effective.
If he changes because he thinks the current style is not working, that's entirely fair enough. But changing on the basis that we've hit an arbitrary points target would be stupid. And a good argument to not have a points target again.
Obviously the target from here is to reach the play-offs, no matter what Ainsworth may say in interviews. Not that that means we've had a bad season if we don't reach them.
Be a shame to drop out of contention now having clawed our way into the final seven. Hopefully, the team will be playing with more attacking confidence for the last games. Anyone fancy our chances for automatic?
No chance of automatic. There may have been if the teams above Wycombe had to play lots of games between each other and take points off each other, but they don't - not sure, but it may be only Pompey and Plymouth who have yet to meet - meaning that all of them have an opportunity for a big points haul between now and the end of the season.
@DJWYC14 thats because it was an elbow, correct decision I believe, Im more concerned with the 2 soft free kicks he awarded to Bristol Rovers in the 3-0 loss but he has lost bit of weight and seems to have improved since that night.
Must admit @DevC that I was surprised by his decision - made a couple of months ago - but he turned 70 last week and that is probably a factor. Interestingly, he has more confidence (even) than I have about our chances of being in the playoffs and thinks Wimbledon will finish in the bottom half of the table (he mentioned 14th) but I think he may revise both opinions after tomorrow! (Only slightly tongue in cheek.)
I take Ainsworth's words at face value here. I think we'll see a genuinely attacking team tomorrow (I predict plenty of deck football, playing the ball out of defence and Liburd and Sellars up front) as the gaffer looks to see whether the players are up to that style of football in a competitive match (assuming Wimbledon are still aiming for the play offs). If the experiment works GA may be more willing to give that style a go next season. If it doesn't he will have more justification for playing in his preferred direct style when the season is reviewed by Howard and his team.
Gaz looks to have done a good job keeping the pressure off the squad, with the "small squad, low budget" line, but when you're 7th, there's 7 games to go, and you got to the play off final the year before, there really is no pretending that the play offs aren't the goal.
Comments
This would suggest another game with at most one goal....however I'm an optimist and so I shall say 2-0 Wycombe, Liburd and Sellars with two stunning efforts!
.....hey it's Friday I'm allowed to get carried away....
Is this Rowan Liburd's last match before his loan expires?
Interested to see Aaron Pierre has more goal assists than Paul Hayes. Not sure how that has happened
He gets forward a lot for corners and set-pieces.
Re Rowan. Yes, he completes his month's loan tomorrow. (Could be extended perhaps - don't know the rules or how he is viewed.)
Love the para in BFP saying that he has fallen out of favour in recent weeks!
I note the referee has already sent off a Wimbledon player earlier this season.
Talking to a friend yesterday who is/has been a lifelong supporter of the original and the re-incarnation. He lives in Great Missenden but is sufficiently disillusioned with their performances this season not to be coming to the game tomorrow. He is a season ticket holder but has not made the hour and a half journey to Kingsmead for several games. Akinfenwa, he says, now has to make a 3-point turn every time he loses the ball and hoofball is rife. Danny Bullman at 37 remains one of their best players.
last time we had this referee he was utter shi*e
Micra
obviously individual choice and that's fine, but Wimbledon are on course to get their best ever league position (in their current form) and very much in the playoff race. Odd time to be throwing toys out of the pram. Sure it was yesterday and not this morning that you spoke to him?
Thanks Len and Benny as ever for this excellent article. Could I put forward a small suggestion to see if others agree?
Personally, I don't find the stats fest that interesting, but I do always want to see your prediction and, to a lesser extent, what you have to say about the referee. Might it be an idea to put one or both of those before the stats, to save scrolling for those of similar mind, particularly on a handheld device?
This is the ref that sent off Steven Craig for the elbow against Oxford
@micra @DevC Interesting similarity with Wycombe here: team doing well, having found a style of play that gets them about as high in League Two as they can reasonably expect to achieve; (some) fans moan about the style of play and, despite the success in league position terms, don't get behind the team.
Strange one for me. If the team are playing in a manner that they have identified is most likely to get them higher in the league, they deserve full support for doing that IMO. Well done to them for working out the most effective strategy.
I thought it was a broken nose keeping Luke out? Knee sounds more worrying.
Interesting comments from Ainsworth "In terms of clean sheets we've outdone last year which is brilliant. If we could have just scored a few more we would have been sitting somewhere similar to last year, but 61 points was always the total and we have got there and I am so pleased.
"Now it is shackles off and let's see how high we can get. There is no target set, let's just see what we can achieve because there is no pressure, play some expansive stuff and try and get some more goals on the board"
Guess this means we will see a change in style and greater push for playing 'winning' football.
I would hope there's no change in style because we've now reached the 61 point target. Either Ainsworth thinks that a different style would be more effective at getting points in which case he should have changed to that style before, or he thinks our current style is most effective.
If he changes because he thinks the current style is not working, that's entirely fair enough. But changing on the basis that we've hit an arbitrary points target would be stupid. And a good argument to not have a points target again.
Obviously the target from here is to reach the play-offs, no matter what Ainsworth may say in interviews. Not that that means we've had a bad season if we don't reach them.
Be a shame to drop out of contention now having clawed our way into the final seven. Hopefully, the team will be playing with more attacking confidence for the last games. Anyone fancy our chances for automatic?
Nope!
No chance of automatic. There may have been if the teams above Wycombe had to play lots of games between each other and take points off each other, but they don't - not sure, but it may be only Pompey and Plymouth who have yet to meet - meaning that all of them have an opportunity for a big points haul between now and the end of the season.
I don't anticipate any change at all for all the reasons discussed plus one extra.
It is April Fools Day after all.
@DJWYC14 thats because it was an elbow, correct decision I believe, Im more concerned with the 2 soft free kicks he awarded to Bristol Rovers in the 3-0 loss but he has lost bit of weight and seems to have improved since that night.
Must admit @DevC that I was surprised by his decision - made a couple of months ago - but he turned 70 last week and that is probably a factor. Interestingly, he has more confidence (even) than I have about our chances of being in the playoffs and thinks Wimbledon will finish in the bottom half of the table (he mentioned 14th) but I think he may revise both opinions after tomorrow! (Only slightly tongue in cheek.)
I take Ainsworth's words at face value here. I think we'll see a genuinely attacking team tomorrow (I predict plenty of deck football, playing the ball out of defence and Liburd and Sellars up front) as the gaffer looks to see whether the players are up to that style of football in a competitive match (assuming Wimbledon are still aiming for the play offs). If the experiment works GA may be more willing to give that style a go next season. If it doesn't he will have more justification for playing in his preferred direct style when the season is reviewed by Howard and his team.
Gaz looks to have done a good job keeping the pressure off the squad, with the "small squad, low budget" line, but when you're 7th, there's 7 games to go, and you got to the play off final the year before, there really is no pretending that the play offs aren't the goal.