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SW19 has successfully changed mailing lists. If you wish to join it, simply click on the section on the top menu (above) which says “Mailing List” and follow the instructions. If you’re already on it, you need do nothing. Thanks to JP for the Eastbourne report below the line. Just a few notes on my trip to the Withdean yesterday, one in particular a lesson some people should heed. Basically, for those who have never been there, just imagine the KM athletics track right in the middle of Merton Park. Complete with misguidedly high snootyness factor. Anyone who thinks that parking around KM is bad should try a 1.5 mile parking exclusion zone. OK, BHA do well to put up with it, but christ they hate being there. Which is why they really get excited about Falmer. And I mean, really excited about the move there in August 2011. Excited in the sense of phenominal interest in the corporate side alone (whether this is their present situation or whether it’s a forerunner to them moving I forget, but they have 27 interested parties for one – yes, one – suite). But it’s more than that, and it’s something the average AFCW fan would understand. At least, I hope we would. When the guy in the PA box explained to me the absolute chill down his spine (in a good way) when he passes Falmer, I know exactly what he meant. When he said that he wants to just put in a grassy surface and watch the next League game there, I couldn’t concur more. And when he said that the next year-and-a-bit will be the most frustrating of all because you can see the stands and you think it’s ready…. well, put it this way, my neck is still loose from the nodding in agreement I did. All of which makes me think of our own ground situation. Since 1991, we’ve had so many lies told to us that I can understand that people have the stuffing knocked out of us over it. I doubt if I’m the only one who rolls their eyes whenever the club says it’s making good progress on Merton – been there, heard that. I so desperately want to be proved wrong, but as usual, you get the feeling we’ll be painfully let down… Not that we shouldn’t try of course, and I think anyone who wavers on this should spend an afternoon down on the South Coast, to prove what it really means. The whole go-back-to-Merton-or-stay-at KM is a subject that is surprisingly sensitive. I know there’s arguments about cost and whatnot, although I maintain to this day that KM will end up being as costly for AFCW as any move back home. In more ways than one. Unfortunately, I’m also detecting a rather nihilistic tendency amongst a minority to support KM simply to “get at” Merton Council and/or the people Erik Samuelson ill-advisedly called fundamentalists. A little snipe here, a sneer there. It’s almost like the long term future of the club takes a backseat to pointscoring. That’s an attitude I don’t get, will never get, and leads me to openly question if they are true AFCW fans or not. I’ll happily state this now – moving back to Merton would propel this club forward in a way that staying at KM will never do. I’ve seen first hand what it means to everyone at BHA, and they haven’t had it as bad as we have. When you speak to them about moving to Falmer, there’s a real buzz and energy that comes through. I once worked with a Brighton fan who said that if they didn’t have enough money to build it, they’d just construct whatever they could afford and move in PDQ anyway. That’s what it means to them. It would also mean the same to us if we were allowed that opportunity. I do believe the problem we have with grounds is that we have never had anything properly presented to us since 1991, which understandably makes people think we will never get anything and that it’s all a big pipe dream. That said, it will just take one legitimate proposal and you watch the whole club burst into life. Think of the commercial opportunities alone. AFCW itself has about 4-5 years to sort out the club’s ultimate direction. It will be difficult, but it could do a lot worse than travel down the M23/A23 and pick a few brains of a certain football club who also hate Palace. Anyway, while we’re on a South Coast theme, I’ll let JP get on with it. He’s been rather patient… Game on! (well, maybe) Well that was better. Not perfect, but certainly better. The score line Eleven Fit Men 2 Twelve Angry Men 0 came after a hard physical encounter but in truth if it hadn’t been for ex-Don Danny Knowles in the Eastbourne goal in the first half we could well have been 3 to 4 goals up. In the end, it was the first bit of football – played on the ground and excellently executed by Wellard – that set up the goal for Poole to score from about a yard. Cue long exhale of breath from all around the ground. Second half and Eastbourne tried even harder to score (and kick us off the park) but seriously, except for one back post block by Pullen where he made himself big (why is it that phrase sounds like someone’s just wanked himself up? Though I suppose that also would put an attacker off scoring a goal), they didn’t produce any other worthy efforts at goal. Of course, this was also the time when the inevitable injury to a player (Kennedy) occurred, as we all knew it would, since in truth we started this game with only 11 fit recognised first-teamers. Our bench consisted of 4 youngsters, the most senior player being Seb Brown! There had been much talk & confusion over player injuries before the game. Then, to top it all, there was that rather muddled comment by TB after the Harrow game on the OS that suggested Godfrey had gone on loan to Staines. This seemed ‘unwise’ at the very least since we already had 7 known injured players (Alan Inns, Jon Main, Brett Johnson, Stephen Gregory, Lewis Taylor, Ross Montague, and Will Hendry) plus Rapson & Turner already on loans. It then transpired we lost both Moore and Blanchett to flu in the last couple of days. It seemed TB had possibly lost it – I certainly hadn’t known about the flu, but it now seems after the game TB was contrite, admitting he perhaps had been too hasty (see here). We do seem to suffer a lot of injuries – it might just be perception as I have no other figures for other clubs to compare but it has been noted (thanks Optimistic Don), that we’ve received 36 yellows/ 2 reds compared to 54 yellows/ 5 reds for our opponents so far. We are definitely being sinned against, and that is certainly a factor in fuelling the injury crisis. Of course, protection for our players is in the hands of the man in black. More about today’s excuse later, but I have been severely disappointed with officials in this league. I’d expected a ‘step-up’ in performance just like I expected with the players and play. But, apart from maybe a couple of performances, there has been plenty of ammunition made available for the crowd to chastise the officials. And if things are this bad at this level there’s no upward pressure on the refs further up the league to improve. I see this weekend’s MotD seems to be focused on poor penalty decisions. Bit like the Elder one yesterday. In many respects today was almost Altrincham revisited. The only difference was that the team today actually put in the shift of work to try and close EB down. Not perfect but a 100% better than last week. And that is why Poole was on the end of Wellard’s cross whereas last week he would still have been wondering what to do, standing 10 yards outside of the penalty area. And the introductions of both Stafford and Harmsworth showed, perhaps through the naivety of youth that pushing forward, attacking and trying to thread balls through does have a positive defensive effect as well. Perhaps TB’s youth policy is still right for us. After all, the youth really won the game on Thursday, and they didn’t seem scared to try today when they came in. Maybe it’s just that our ‘youth’ from the beginning of the season have now almost become ‘older men’. And we need the new youth of today to come in and play without fear to remind the old men it can still be done. Anyway … Plus points: Ricky Wellard. Another clean sheet! 6 wins, 1 draw in the last 7 at home. Keeping in touch with the playoffs. Youngsters’ enthusiasm. Dare I say DD? Minus Points: Kennedy injury, Opposition goalkeeper’s form, Injury list. Lorraine doing excellent impersonations of Bambi on Ice! Everyone else around us winning. Why do we still persist with Hatton free kicks? (Ok, good strike today but it was straight at the keeper whereas if Wellard had taken it the other side of the wall it would have been going to the gap and the goalie would have had to make up the ground) The Referee’s a …. total disgrace/cunt to the profession. Some said a typical Ryman official. Personally think that was unfair on the Ryman. From the outset he seemed to decide it was ok for the EB players to rugby tackle our players; hack them down whenever they looked like breaking free; and generally get ever decision wrong. Ok that sounds mad but it seriously felt that bad at times. His incompetence was summed up by two incidents. Second half, ball played up to Kedwell in front of John Smiths, lino 5 yards away. Flags for foul on Kedwell. Ref 25-30 yards away, gives the foul the other way! What is the point in having ref assistants if you don’t use them? But worse was to come. Late on a through ball is picked up cleanly by Pullen but an EB sub comes in and leaves his foot in, catching Pullen’s head. Ref ushers him away without recourse and then tells Pullen off for complaining he had been kicked in the head. Incredible. No wonder we have the injury crisis we have! He must have known it being Saturday 13th he wasn’t going to pull or get tonight. Them: Why 12 Angry Men? Well they certainly came with an ‘angry attitude.’ Maybe it was a sign of the relegation dogfight. Certainly tough we were all surprised it took until about 30 min in for their No 5 to get booked. Think he thought the number of his shirt was the number of times he could foul Elder with impunity. Finally the ref got the message but by then it was too late as their attitude, and the ref’s lack of control set the tone of the game. Shirt pulling, feet left in, elbows flaying and to top it off a flying two-footed tackle on Pullen by, utterly surprisingly ex-Don Jamie Taylor (who btw still looked the business) brought nothing more than a few yellows from the man in black. He was their 12th man, and he seemed angry with us all day. As a friend said, you do wonder sometimes if you are watching the same game. Regarding their fans it looked like a fair number came. Heard them once or twice. Bit like our fans then. Point to ponder: Have we really got enough left in this team to get to the playoffs, and if we do, actually do anything? WUP 7.4 fanzine had gone all sentimental in one article about great goals and the winner reminded me of other playoff games, including that Fisher game where we literally did go into the game with about 11 fit men. Perhaps that is an omen. But at the moment we really do need more help – rumour has it we might have an Aldershot player on the way in as an emergency loan. Funny thing though these emergency loans – doesn’t seem they require any evidence whatsoever of the ‘emergency’ that you are claiming. Odd that in a way, that real evidence isn’t required by the FA…. where has that hurt us before? Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) That the much maligned Derek Duncan had a pretty good second game on the trot, supplying a nice cross for DK’s goal that sealed the game. He’s not the fans’ favourite yet but hasn’t done too badly in the last two games. Watch him not get the York gig next week. 2) Was Matt Harmsworth the youngest player to don an AFCW in a proper league match today? 3) Rumours he did more with his feet in his first 30 seconds of coming on than Nathan Elder did in the rest of the match, was purely mischievous observation. Elder continues to frustrate. 4) That not one EB fan was under the age of about 40* – apparently the stand seats for EB sold out in a record time for the season 5) The Main Stand not moaning but laughing their arses off. Said occasion occurred, I am reliably informed by my daughter, when some wag in the stand, after another failed attempt by the podgy linesman to get something right was heard to shout: “Lino! You’ve got nothing right all afternoon…“ followed swiftly by, in sincere and glowing terms, “ You’ve got a nice pair of tits though.” Cue roars of laughter and general wetting in pants that would have see Tena for Men accomplish record sales. * – SW19 NOTE: to be fair to Eastbourne, nobody under the age of 60 lives in the town. Anything else: Yep. We have now officially metamorphosed into Wimbledon FC. There that’ll at least please the fundamentalists in the camp. I claim we are a long ball team and we will remain so whilst we play Elder and Kedwell together. OK, Hobson’s choice today but next week at York? Will we see the return of Main or Moore to compliment Kedwell or Elder? Don’t bet on it yet. So was it worth it? Staves off planning for retirement for this season for another week In a nutshell: Job done. Who’s next? York? Oh! Where’s the duck tape, and do you think the Royal Armouries in Leeds will lend us some of their stock for next Saturday, guv? After last night’s “effort”, a better report for you. Just received this in my inbox from Mr Mikey T. Enjoy After three successive generally poor performances, a Thursday night in the nut-numbing evening chill of the Earlsmead Sports Multiplex was, understandably, not everyone’s idea of fun – and the eventual crowd approximation from everyone’s favourite fan-counter (Papers) of around 130 was both unsurprising and also the easiest evening he’s had so far since 2002. But scrape away the general air of disdain, apathy, and dare I say, dread, which we’ve collectively displayed when it comes to this particular competition…. and we had ourselves a nice chilled low-key evening of footy in comparison to the cut and thrust of BSP life, reasonably-priced refreshments in an era when us getting ripped-off is now generally a given. Perhaps even more alarmingly, we actually had ourselves a rather decent cup tie, with a young Dons side who gelled very well, helped along with a more experienced midfield of Wellard, Adjei and Godfrey, up against a gutsy, spirited Harrow side, who hung in there and could well have forced extra-time had it not been for some great saves from Seb. In the end, it was two clinical finishes from Matty Harmsworth and a late bullet header (a la Everard) from central-defensive pivot Charlie Clark-Gleave that did the business, as we survived two equalisers from some bloke called Harewood (no, not Marlon). There was also a touch of nostalgia in the cold night air, as our old mate Keita Karamoko re-acquainted himself with the noble art of picking the ball out of the net against us. (Mali’s…. number 1…… Mali’s, Mali’s number 1!) But above and beyond just the result, there were certainly other pleasing aspects of the game – most notably how our young charges still stood up to their generally lively and physically-stronger opponents, and fought for each other – particularly when the spectre of extra-time suddenly loomed large after the second Harrow equaliser. Previously, we might have expected them to feel the pressure and lose their way, especially as by now, Wellard and Godfrey had exited the arena of combat… but the way they brushed off the disappointment of being pegged back to then go up the other end so soon afterwards and win the game, shows just what kind of progress they are making. They also showed good passing, movement, and appreciation of the game, which of course bodes very well indeed for our future. So in the end, not just a pleasing, hard-fought result, to reward the hardy few who’d turned up, but also some surreal memories to take with us, such as our sub ‘keeper Ali Aksoy coming on to play outfield and a Harrow throw-in being taken at least two feet in from the touchline – not to mention a well-known Dons fan of ill-repute in certain internet forums, who couldn’t stop singing as we left the ground….. “back for the final, we’re coming back for the final”… and if those defiant, bellowed sentiments don’t epitomise our juggernaut-esque pursuit of County Cup glory, or put the fear of God into Fisher or Croydon Athletic…. then nothing will. ….and to close in the style of the usual SW19 reports…. so, was it worth it? You bet…. always nice to have another semi on. If I must… - We won - Didn’t play too badly first half. Off the boil a bit in the second. - Mostly fringers with Wellard, Godfrey, Seb Brown and the returning Kennedy Adjei too. Much better than Chipstead last week, anyway. - We await either Fisher or Croydon Athletic in the semi. For the sake of our coffers, we want Fisher to win because we can play them on the 17th April if all parties agree. - The final is at the very venue we played at tonight. Knowing us, we’ll probably get through to it and lose. - Lowest ever AFCW-era crowd in a competitive first team game – under 200. Mind you, we’ve had two games this week already, another one Saturday, and Thursday is a strange night anyway. For many, it clashes with their monthly Lib Dem Friends of Armenia Society meeting, although for others it’s their weekly sex night. - Bar was OK, £2-40 for a pint isn’t bad. And it wasn’t Guinness but….. Murphys. Murphys. Murphys…. - Nice kebab from just outside South Harrow station. With proper, freshly baked pitta bread too. Could have sat in there and had one of their curries. And no, I can’t be arsed to write any more… Oh cock. Looks like our march towards mid table mediocrity continues, especially after Reds 2 Deads 1. This is quite a sobering experience, being pretty ordinary a side. The worst thing is that we took the lead and just failed to make any sort of traction afterwards. You know how a team scores after about 1 minute then has to think of what to do for the next 89? That’s what happened to us. It was as though we geared ourselves up for a blistering start, got it, then stood looking at each other and shrugged “now what?”. What grabbed me tonight wasn’t so much how shocking it was that we were shite again, but how predictable it was. Something has gone out of this team. Maybe the ride of the last seven years is coming to an end after all? Maybe we’re now suffering from something called team imbalance? Maybe, just maybe, we’ve found our level for now? When you go 1-0 up after about a minute, you should at least expect some comeback from the opposition. But at the same time, I would have expected us to have some sort of attack at various stages of the game ourselves. The only time we looked like scoring again was in the last 10 minutes. LT and Elder were off with injuries, Poole was off because everyone had forgotten he was playing, and we had Moore, Wellard and Godfrey on. I hate to say this, but I’m wondering with Elder if we’re now seeing why Shrewsbury were so keen to offload him to us. The Elder we saw ripping Mansfield’s tight little arsehole open has long disappeared, to be replaced by an Elder who seems to be going the same way as Kezie Ibe. Remember him? Your editor does, worryingly. We should all know that we just cannot rely on DK and JM all the time, as we have been doing. I bet half of you have forgotten poor Ross Montague is even at the club (hint : he’s injured. Badly, too). And I can’t help but think that Luis Cumbers was either badly advised or a bit too desperate to return to Gillingham. It cannot be denied though – something has changed. Where has Kennedy gone? And Brett Johnson? Why isn’t Blanchett playing and DD is? At least Luke Moore is playing some more games, and tellingly tonight and against Alty we looked better with him when he came on. And am I the only one who is glad to see Wellard is back? Barring a fluke, we can now safely write off the playoffs. Yes, I know it’s still mathematically possible, but this team, this collection of players just isn’t good enough to do anything in them. Fact. Not that he’d want my advice, nor should he take it. But if I could tell TB one thing about his job that he ought to do, it’s just get a team that knows how to play well together and let it play for contracts until the end of the season. Now would be a perfect time to confirm who can cut playing BSP football with AFC Wimbledon and who can’t. And some players can’t. They may not be bad players in themselves, but they’re liabilities for us. And by “liabilities”, I mean that they don’t really add too much. I wouldn’t mind seeing the team that ended the game getting named as a starting XI (though I’d put Blanchett in for DD – yes, really. And BJ has to return and soon). Build a nucleus of a side that can play in the BSP next season for us, and add as necessary in the summer. In reality, it was always a fancyful notion expecting playoffs again this season. At least we’ve come up rather than down, and we do have a stability that a lot of clubs secretly envy. In a way, Chester’s results getting expunged (and isn’t that a great word?) has done us a dis-service, because it still makes us look like legit playoff contenders. We’re not. If we were, we wouldn’t have played with such lackluster in 2010. In fact, I’m struggling to think of games where we have had that spark you need to challenge at the top. Again, Mansfield is the only game this year that remotely approaches that level. Tonight has proved that our recent blip isn’t a blip but who we truly are. Capable of beating anything on a day when everything clicks but needs a lot more work to click in the first place. A few other things from tonight. There was a decent turnout from us, about 750 odd. Maybe the official attendance of 1569 was right? If you consider that half the crowd were indeed us. Their PA guy seemed to be in a 1970s mindset when it came to spinning the discs. When he played Life On Mars I half expected Gene Hunt to come out and give Steve Evans a big kicking. Who, by the way, seemed to make more noise than the entire Crawley support put together. Oh, and I’ve decided Evans is just an attention seeker, which explains his non-accountancy conduct. Just ignore him. Simon Bassey got sent to the stands late on though. No idea what for. I used to cover a fair few Crawley games, in the days when I was a cub reporter and the NLP did a midweek edition. Around that time, Frances Vines was their manager, and they were about to make the brave step into full time football. The rest is history. A lesson for us, maybe? IMO, we just need to get the team right first before embarking on something that will change the very modus operandi of the club. What else of note? LT went off injured, in fact he looked in genuine discomfort when limping off. Guess we’ll wait and see whether it was the same leg that took him out for most of last season. Other than that, I’m not sure what else I can really say. We were crap, end of. We’re just not good enough, and yes, that does hurt to write that. But it’s true. Oh, and apparently their goalkeeper looked like a pervert… … that was good. Decent skill, wanting to win, some moments for the crowd to enjoy, and plenty of looking back on the video later today with a mixture of pride and satisfaction. I am of course referring to the girls and juniors on the pitch at half time. And after Southern League 1 Northern Premier League 1, perhaps we were too hasty in dragging them off afterwards? I’ve given myself some reflection on this, which is why this is up on Sunday rather than Saturday evening. Though even writing this up now was one serious struggle. I still can’t believe how, well, ordinary we are right now. And in truth, how we’ve been so since Mansfield. During the game yesterday, I said to the bloke next to me, “I can’t remember the last time we had a turgid 0-0″. On second glance, maybe it was St Albans last season (and ironically around the same time last year). Had it finished goalless, it would have been a just result. To put the contest in a nutshell, halfway during the first half Sam Hatton tried to trap the ball and pass it forward. He miscontrolled it and went out for an Alty throw. Five minutes later, their #19 slipped over and fell on his face with nobody near him. It summed up the day. OK, the doomsday scenario of having Hatton and Blanchett as centre backs thankfully didn’t happen. Although it might have been more entertaining if it had. Have the loanee signings disrupted things that much? I dunno, but if we hadn’t brought them in we’d be collectively moaning that we haven’t got strength in depth. This time last year, I remember TB pointing out that we were relying far too much on DK producing the goods. He (Danny, not Terry) was playing that run-in not 100% fit, and we were having to rely on a JM who struggled a little bit too. If we’d done the same this season, we would have been looking at Barrow v Cambridge yesterday with more than a hint of concern. Last time, I ranted on about lack of depth in reserves. Today, I’m merely going to point out that if we want a squad large enough and good quality enough to challenge for the playoffs, we’ll need to spend some serious wonga. Oxford are splashing the cash again this week, and it’s pointless to pretend that we won’t do something similar in the future. Oh, the game. Well, Derek Duncan had quite a good one, which may explain how bad the contest was. Typically though, he gave away a penalty. I don’t think our full backs are much cop, though I think Danny Blanchett (who IMO is a better left back than DD) suffers from not being Chris Hussey. And I don’t want to be a Hatton hater, but seriously – what is his best position? Though we are stuck with him there all the while Jay Conroy is out. Some people are starting to have a pop at Nathan Elder, presumably because he’s breaking up the DK/JM partnership. Funny, because when he went off we lost our attacking impetus. Yesterday could have been ideal for Jon Main – shame he was crocked. If there was one bright spot on the horizon, Luke Moore returned and we looked a lot more threatening as a result. We’ve missed him. Anyway, we’ve got Crawley on Tuesday at their place. While you await the post-mortem from that, here’s… Plus points: We didn’t lose. Luke Moore. Your editor totally unexpectedly getting hold of a cheap train ticket to York (watch me now have to work that day) Minus points: We didn’t win. 3pm to 4.45pm. The referee’s a…: Seemed to miss a fair amount, though half of it was down to him shielding his eyes from the sun. Oh, and wasn’t it good to see Eddy Grant as a linesman? Them: Probably should have beaten them, but another team who knew how to stop us sufficiently enough. They do show why we shouldn’t struggle in future seasons, a better performance from us and who knows? Decent enough turnout by their supporters though. Kudos to their keeper, who did join in with two of our under-8s in a little kickabout just before the second half was about to start. Alas, the two goals he let in weren’t an omen… Point to ponder: Could it be that we are a – gulp – mid table side? And if we are, would that necessarily be a bad thing? Being the sad bastard I am, I decided to list out below where we’ve finished since 2002: 2002/03 – 3rd (no playoff, but only because the CCL didn’t have them) Whatever way you look at it, that’s not a bad run in that time. On reflection, I’m glad the consolidation seasons we were expecting in 2004/05 and 2008/09 didn’t happen. As it looks like we’re being forced to do just that this time around, at least we’re doing it in a high profile division where people give a shit what we do. Also, could pushing for the playoffs again be the worst thing we can do this season? Don’t get me wrong, if we go in them I’ll be wanting that victory at Wembley. But it’s clear the club doesn’t feel ready enough yet to go down the increased wage bill route. We don’t yet have strength in depth throughout the club, and Oxford taught us how far behind we really are. Having the season ending at Gateshead and realising we’ll be in the same division next season is going to be a bit of a comedown for a lot of people. It’ll be a weird feeling, and one that might dampen moods during the summer. But then, things like that do happen when you’re a proper football club… Meet the manager: For some reason, I can’t convert this to MP3, so this is it in the original WMA format. No idea whether this will work from the link or not, although I expect TB hasn’t said anything you wouldn’t have guessed already. Three’s a crowd: 3388, which was more than I expected for such a fixture. Guess a month without a home game does that to you. Needless to say, my local branch of Frederick W Payne made more noise. But then, why does anyone act all surprised when we don’t make a din at home? We were never the loudest at PL as it was, and the most (only?) atmosphere I can remember at Selhurst was during the protests. Let’s be honest here – a large section of our support read the Guardian or Telegraph, and would be equally at home at Twickenham. Perhaps we ought to start singing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”? Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Ground improvements look nice. Never lose sight of the fact though that it’s still only making sure you have a front door and a roof that doesn’t leak. (2) Notice from the programme that the people who served the the rich bastards hospitality section are stepping down. Question : if it saved £40k, if the people who do it did a good enough job and who want to do it enough to carry on with the new contractors, why have they stepped down in the first place? (3) Good to see the club now has an FA Charter. Anything else? Yes. I bought a copy of WUP yesterday (7.3), and I’ve decided I’m no longer their target audience. OK, WUP earns a lot of money for the club. Anyone who also puts their neck out publically in publishing (especially in the somewhat incestuous world of AFCW) gets my kudos. And its editors have admitted in the past that it is a hit-and-miss type of publication and that its main remit is to raise funds. But not for the first time, the content is mainly the following: 1) Franchise FC is bad. What happened on 28th May 2002 was wrong. We hate them and everything they stand for. 2) Trust ownership and the way that AFCW does everything is the way forward 3) I’ve gone to another game but my real point is to tell you how shit it is and how good AFCW is I’m really not joking – at least 75% of the latest edition was exactly that. And after the first article of that tone, we really do get the idea pretty damn quickly. Surprised it didn’t have an FCUM article in there. OK, you do get the odd thought-provoking article from time to time, but it does appear that the publication doesn’t really have much else to say Which for the season we’re having is amazing. I get the impression that since the run-in(s) with certain people at AFCW, the publication has been neutered somewhat. It always seems to struggle between being a fundraiser and being an “independent” outlet, and I don’t think it’s ever fully succeeded dealing with that paradox. I would suggest that it doesn’t go “controversial” for the sheer sake of it either. It’s called faux-outrage for a reason, and it’s also very easy to do badly. Part of its problem for me is that it doesn’t publish that regularly anyway. If it came out monthly, or once every 5 weeks, it would eventually build up its own regular contributor pool, and as a result gets its own “voice”. Not to mention generating more £££ for the club. As it stands, it only comes out once in a blue moon, and goes down the route of “just say something to fill up space”. For a publication, that’s a killer. For the purposes of this section, I’ve just dug out two random old WUPs from the vast SW19 Towers library : the WUP For The Cup Premier Challenge Cup Final special, whenever that was, and 3.5, which was about 2006 (in the DA era, anyway). While not every article hit the spot, and I don’t think WUP has been very good at humour anyway, the earlier ones did at least appear relevant to the season happening. In fact, in the latter one it was bemoaning that there weren’t enough people contributing articles, despite it being the fifth edition of the season. I stopped contributing for various reasons, but one problem I had was that there was nothing I could write for it that was different to what I was doing on here. Duplication equals irritation, and all that. But if people know that it is coming out each and every month, at least they might put fingers to keyboard and give a different slant to something currently on their mind. True, there’s the very real risk of filler taking up the pages, but I would prefer that to yet more backslapping. Besides, some filler can end up being the most notable bits of work. I will get the upcoming 7.4, and hopefully it will make me reconsider the above comments. I would rather buy a fanzine than a programme anyway. I just don’t like to read something that I’ve known since 2002… By the way, if anyone thinks I’m picking on WUP, I’ll say this : in the last couple of months, I’ve picked up two recent editions of fanzines that were an influence to SW19 back in the early years – Red Issue (Yernited) and Gooner (Arse). I was disappointed in both of them, and they have bigger readerships and more regular editions than our own fanzines. Personally, I think fanzines are dying anyway. I haven’t read a good printed one for a long while. True, the internet with blogs and messageboards have made the medium a tad redundant, but even so with football’s recent problems they should be thriving? Or perhaps there’s only so many times you can say that football is fucked… So, was it worth it? Cold, miserable, and taken me close on 20 hours later to come up with this “report”. Guess how much it was worth it. In a nutshell: Can you give minus figures for match ratings? By “delayed”, it will either be up much later tonight, or by some point tomorrow. You really expect me to be writing tons and tons on that pile of whale semen? … then you may need to reconsider. Some rather startling news this morning from the treatment table. Cue TB and the Surrey Herald:
Oh great. Nothing like a nice, fluffy headline on this sunnyish-if-slightly chilly Thursday morning.
Tell us about it. Last time I saw anything part that readily, it was the Red Sea. Or the buttock cheeks of a Franchise fan whenever Wankie takes those blue pills from Canadian pharmacies. Anyway, we could now be without Quiche and Ben Judge too. So, in other words we get “treated” to the same back line that managed to concede three goals against a R1S side a mere couple of days ago. And that was only because Chipstead’s attack was inaccurate. OK, this could be TB just bluffing, he has form for this as we all know. How many times did DK die before a crucial game last season? But even if just one of those players return, we’re in for a pretty rough afternoon on Saturday. It may put a serious dent into the more optimistic of Womble viewpoint, who genuinely believes that we are playoff material. If you hear Ryan Jackson, SH, Blanchett and Derek Duncan getting read over the PA, get your mortgage on Alty. A few thoughts are going through my head right now, ones that don’t involve suicide. Yet. How come we always seem so messed up with injuries like this? We’re lucky that we “only” get crocked players, and that our general discipline has helped us this far – yes, I know some people grumble that we’re bottom of the dirty play league, and it’s “unWimbledon”, but we’d be in a lot worse shit if we had more than Jay Conroy collecting fines. Earlier on in the season, it looked like we’d cracked the defensive issues – BJ and Quiche looked imposing, with Garrard/Conroy and Hussey/AN Other sorting it out on the flanks. It’s all gone wrong again, and now in the worst possible way. We haven’t really looked that imposing even with a full(er) strength back line. Who can we get in? Emergency loans don’t work for positions other than goalkeepers. We might as well play DK and Nathan Elder in defence, rather than see Tuesday’s back line again. Is Marcus Gayle registered as a player? Is Jason Goodliffe a free agent? OK, they have a combined age of 232 and are as mobile as a broken down Ford Capri, but at least you can rely on them for sheer effort if nothing else. Hell, get Matt Everard out of retirement. Give him a new pair of knees if need be, preferably those belonging to a 20 year old. There is a more serious issue here, and it’s one that SW19 bangs on about to the point of tedium. This proves why we seriously need to get our reserve sides up to scratch. Insert comments about Football Combination, full time, Wednesday afternoon games at QPR etc. But let’s face it – you wish that was the case right now. True, we may throw Ryan Jackson in on Saturday, but where are the other defenders from our second squads? Are they too young? Too inexperienced? Likely to get destroyed against a BSP attack? I’ve been trying to ween myself off using Learning Curve™ for a while, but this is another consequence of it. In the past, we would have just got somebody on loan for a week/month, almost at the click of a finger. Now we have to be more self-sufficient, and we’ve found we haven’t got much in depth when we really need it. If we put in our second XI’s centre back pairing just for this one game, then the worst we could do is lose 3 points. I doubt if they’d be worse than Sam Hatton and Danny Blanchett. And who knows, they might have a blinder, look solid and mature beyond their years, and we’ve suddenly got a new set of heroes to worship. After all, we did exactly that with Seb Brown and some bloke called Chris Hussey… As far as SW19 is concerned, this season is written off now. Situations like this and Oxford away make me realise just how much more we need to do. As much as we need to consider whether we can afford to pay Nathan Elder, we need to get the path from the kids doing kickabouts before the game up to them making a heroic first team debut sorted. We may be able to get away with it for another season, but after that, we have to be properly set up. By “properly”, I mean bring people up to a standard throughout the setup where they can emulate a Chris Hussey. I’m fully aware that the AFCW era is still making baby steps, and it’s not nearly as straightforward as I’m making out. But we have to do it, and pretty quickly too. Whenever I’ve watched reserves or youth team games this season, I can’t help but think we put loads of youngsters in for the sake of it. It’s as though we get them in but not quite know what to do with them afterwards. Also, they may not be as good as we want to believe – I saw us in the FA Youth cup against Bournemouth, and despite the one division apart first-team wise, their youth were far above ours. Painfully so, too. That’s a big problem, and one that can have an effect on the first team as well. Anyway, to Saturday. Chances are Ben Judge will be on the Lemsip enough to play, and we’ll scrape by as we always seem to do. But if we want to progress, one thinks that we need to start doing better than considering Sam Hatton at centre back……….. For some reason, I go to senior cup games even when I know I shouldn’t. After Chips 3 Fries 4, I’m still asking myself that question. To be honest, this should have been the most embarrassing result in the AFCW era. In the past, our minor cup exits have been down to scratch teams, half of whom I suspect didn’t even know what colour we were playing in. This however was a team who you could legitimately put out in a Conference game. From memory, it was Brown, Hatton, Blanchett, Ryan Jackson, Derek Duncan, Poole, Wellard, Hendry, Godfrey, DK and JM. A side you would expect to win comfortably against Grays, let alone a Ryman One outfit. Yes, I know that the idea was to give them a bit of match practice after Saturday. I know that we weren’t going at even 50% of what we could do. And I know that had we gone out, it would have been as much a matter of piss-taking by ourselves along with a few blushes. But really, especially in defence, some of it was outright painful to watch. What it does prove is that we need to take a serious look at our back line, even for sheer strength in depth. When I saw Ben Judge walking out to his car with an hour to go (before the conspiracy theorists start – he had flu and was sent home), it was going to be one of those sorts of nights. Poor Sam Hatton just cannot play centre back at all, which at least gives the people who like slagging him off another reason to have a pop at him. Gap wise, this was the equivalent of Spurz travelling down to Torquay and getting a result courtesy of Jermaine Defoe in the 93rd minute. It’s that kind of strange performance that county cups always provide, we just weren’t in gear for most of it. To give you some idea of how through-the-motions it was. Any tackle or move that would have injured a player was half heartedly performed – if at all. When we did put some (relative) effort in the last 20 minutes, we forced their goalie to make about 3/4 good saves as a result. There were times when Nathan Elder (who came on in the second half) put a little more into his now-trademark powering runs and the Chipstead defence shat themselves. But the main difference seemed to come from the two benches. The Chipstead bench were all stood up, urging their team onwards, getting stuck in. Ours looked like they were discussing where to get the best deal on sterling (Zimbabwe, one presumes). Bar the odd call from TB to “use your heads” and “get into the box”, which seemed a little bit too optimistic… Once we got to 3-2, it was inevitable that we were going to pull back to 3-3. OK, Chipstead kept trying to exploit what we laughably called our back line, but you could tell they were hanging on for most of it. Had we done it from the off, I would have been talking about a 7-0 win right now. There was one problem of course with this equaliser right at the death : the very fact that it meant 30 minutes of extra time. I don’t think I’ve seen so many of our fans half-heartedly cheer a game-tying goal right at the death. Maybe it was because we didn’t entirely care tonight ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, I always love winning games, and we really did leap about when it was 4-3. Then again, that was as much down to the fact we could go home after that. But you felt you could have just gone down the training ground and watched something similar for nowt. Anyway, seems like we’re going to play Godalming. Yes, the venue of the notorious Mr Fish game. Be there, whenever it is. Fish himself surely won’t be… Plus points: We won. Actually quite entertaining towards the end. Return of Luke Moore to action. Glenn “Tempo” Poole looking like he gave a shit. Minus points: £8 for 70 minutes worth of a training session. Trying a radical new formation without an actual defence. The referee’s a…: Oh come on, he could have disallowed our fourth goal and I’d still be making my way home at time of writing. Them: Fair play to them, they wanted to win and probably should have done. I’ve almost forgiven them for beating us in the first home competitive fixture of the AFCW era. I said “almost”… Their little winger was quite speedy and caused us problems. A couple of years ago, he might have been an AFCW player by the end of the night (after all, we signed Jon Main after he scored twice against us for Tonbridge that evening). Maybe if we get our reserves sorted out to a decent level we would do that. Oh, and their goalkeeper looked like the bass player for an indie band. I’ll say a little bit more later about visiting Chipstead, but suffice to say, I still hate country roads as much as I ever did… Point to ponder: Is there much point in playing such a strong side for these types of contests in future? Although we’ve gone through a lot of why we shouldn’t already, here’s another thought : our fringe players have been denied valuable playing time. OK, they get the chance to humiliate prove themselves at Harrow next Thursday, but if we win the SSC nobody is really going to get excited. Especially if the BSP playoffs are well within our radar. Again, I hope that this will be the last season whereby our fringe players don’t get decent competitive action on a regular basis. I certainly didn’t like it when Glenn Poole went off to get some strapping tonight… Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Nice burgers at their permanently built BBQ pit. Cheap enough, too (£2.50). Believe they get a fair amount of trade with kids football finals around there, which proves that no matter how big or small you are, a bit of ingenuity and knowhow goes a long way (2) The reaction when it went 3-3. Aren’t we all supposed to be, you know, happy? (3) There was no training tonight, and at least four players purely turned up to get treated by Mike Rayner. Including one D Duncan. To be fair to him, he did have a decent game, so at least he can perform in Ryman Div One. Anything else? Yes. I think I’ve worked out why I go to county cup games – it’s the nostalgia trips. Hard to think that a mere 6/7 years ago, we were playing Chipstead in a competitive league fixture. People may think us being a Conference side these days is an eye-opener. Actually, I would say us playing at that level was more noteworthy. Of course, we never actually played a league fixture there. Although the official capacity is 3000, it wouldn’t have coped with the away crowds we were taking back then. But this was definitely a CCL reunion, even if neither side is in the CCL these days. There’s two sides to that coin. Even now, some people would secretly like us to be back in the CCL, and for a fleeting moment you can see why. It was relaxing, there was no hint whatsoever of us getting ripped off (although I think £8 for a senior cup tie is too much, I don’t begrudge Chipstead in the way I do for T&M), and they really seemed to welcome us being there. To this day, I felt the CCL clubs were as well organised (if not more so) than many of the clubs higher up the pyramid. And certainly without the attitude of some Ryman outfits… But it proves as a reminder why we should never be at that level ever again. Imagine what our football watching would have been like if we hadn’t got it together PDQ and got ourselves going upwards. Would Chipstead and other such places have had such a place in our hearts if we’d spent 4, maybe 5 seasons down there? Christ, I remember people getting pissed off halfway during the second CCL season, when the novelty was quickly wearing off. It’s ironic that this season, we would have visited more old haunts than we have done since we left them behind originally. We’ve had Ash, now Chipstead, and now we’re off to Godalming in the semi final. On Thursday week, it’s back to Harrow (one wonders if the slaggish-yet-fit barmaids will be there pulling a creamy head. One only hopes so) and a reminder of the Ryman Prem days. And games against Boreham Wood have reminded us all too painfully of what watching the games was really like back then. Ask yourself this : next time we have a free Saturday, will you really make a special journey to a CCL club? In the words of Kenneth Auchincloss, it is one thing to learn about the past, it is another to wallow in it. If you want to know why it’s good to go back to these venues, it’s because we’re at the right level today… So, was it worth it? *clenches teeth* In a nutshell: Back to the future. No more needs to be said, really. We’re still waiting the fallout from this, namely if the results get wiped out (we go 6th by the way if so), but I did have to do a screengrab of their website for prosperity:
Bet this is quite hard to take if you support them right now though – you’ve spent all this season actively hoping that your nightmare is finally over, and now the bell is tolling it still comes as a shock to the system. Like the reformed Halifax and ourselves, they’ll find the new Chester City incarnation as bloody hard work but ultimately rewarding. As somebody pointed out elsewhere though, at least they don’t have to suffer the gut-wrenching images of other parties rubbing what they’ve stolen in their faces. They can now concentrate on the football, which when the brown stuff hits the portable ventilation device is a suprisingly difficult thing to do. When the inevitable winding up on March 10 occurs, they’ll see what Kris Stewart meant when he said that he just wanted to watch some football. On the flip side, they’ll come across idiots who wear their ignorance as a badge of honour… The other things. Firstly, the Conference must be pleased right now, because they got the clubs to do their dirty work for them. Nothing like taking a bit of responsibility, eh? Mind you, Chester didn’t turn up to hear their fate today – guess they really don’t care enough now. Either that or else they couldn’t look anyone in the eye. Secondly, it’s not been a very good week if your club initials are CCFC. First Cork earlier in the week, then Chester. I bet Chelmsford are looking through all their bank statements with a worried sweat right now. And finally – had this all been sorted out a week ago, we could have played Oxford tomorrow…
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