AFC Wimbledon 0 Millwall 1

So I couldn’t make the game last night. A minor family emergency… but these things happen and all is well with the world once again this morning. If only the game had been played today! I mean, who plays on a Friday night? This is football, not Rugby League!

So I missed our 0-1 defeat to a dodgy/stonewall penalty (depending on where you were standing it seems…), in a game which, from what I could catch on WDON, sounded like it could best be described as ‘a good workout’. My next first team action will be on Tuesday at Corinthian-Casuals, but this morning I’m planning on cycling over to Cobham to catch up with the reserves. More on that later, if I can identify any of the players…

Addicks Lined Up For Pre-Season Cash-In

Ah, the election is over once more… That one day when politics is where it’s at, I stay up until 2.30am watching the early results come in, only to wake up dribbling on the sofa at 6.20 to find its all changed, and yes your worse fears/great hope has come to pass… and those two options aren’t mutually exclusive by the way. Sadly it seems like the end for Scottish Cyclops Gordon Brown, I being one of the few remaining people in the country to have any sympathy for him… I don’t read the papers you see, plus he seems to share my ‘spend it today, cos someone might try to take it off you tomorrow’ budgeting principle.

Hopefully I might have enough copper coinage left to gain entry to the Dons first pre-season game of the season, now it has been announced that top League One/struggling Championship side Charlton Athletic will kick off the pre-season build up on Saturday 10th July, shortly before England kick off their World Cup third-place playoff against the Ivory Coast. This marks a departure from our previous tactic of low-key preparations, and is a step up from Wycombe and Brighton last year, especially as both Charlton and Millwall have promised to bring over a first team squad.

Another positive step is the news that not only are they paying a visit, but each club is being tipped to leave a promising youngster with us for a season. We have been linked with Charlton’s young defender Yado Mambo, and Millwall forward John Marquis, both who enjoyed loan spells in the division below last term. A planned long tem loan agreement will suit all parties, especially the Dons who got their fingers burned last year with some increasingly desperate looking short-term deals, and a year-long arrangement would make sense at a club who on the whole sign players on yearly contracts. Hopefully Terry Brown won’t have to shuffle around looking for last-minute deals like his Prime Minister namesake…

Anyway, no news on any away pre-season games at present, except for some word of mouth gossip that one of them is a bit tasty – and I’ve genuinely heard no more than that, so don’t write in… Naturally whenever there is any official news, I’ll be on hand no more than twenty-four hours later to comment…

Heres what Charlton have to say about the fixture…

http://www.cafc.co.uk/newsview.ink?nid=36078&newstype=n

…although either they are a bit on the slow side when it comes to our current squad, or they have broken news of some extremely surprising signings…

The General Specific (Tuesday 17th November ’09)

I haven’t written for a while, thanks to the ‘real world’ gate crashing my blogging party last week. Not that I didn’t try, but I will spare the world my car crash effort of a Millwall report. How something so positive could turn into something absolutely depressing is beyond me, and I wrote it…

A few belated thoughts on Millwall. If we put in that sort of performance against Conference opposition week in, week out, we will undoubtedly be up among the playoff contenders at the end of the season. Yet the memories that will last longest in my head will undoubtedly be the fantastic atmosphere in the stands that night (sorry Lewis…). We can only dream of the days we get the chance to repeat that on a regular basis, until then there is a chance we could suffer from post-FA Cup syndrome, not just on the pitch but in the stands as well. Can we not all try our best to recreate that atmosphere at Kingsmeadow?

I know that its tougher as we are more spread around, but the lower roofs can aid us. It shouldn’t just be the handfull in the Tempest who keep the atmosphere going, it should be coming from all sides of the ground. I resolve to sing a bit more from my usual position behind the dugout, rather than just loudly abuse the officials/opposition when things aren’t going our way.

I wasn’t at Barrow on Saturday, it coincided with my birthday, and my wife lined up a day of birthday celebrations. Which ultimately ended in a row at the Indian restaurant we went to eat at. It was a nice meal and all, but the customer service was shocking. If you ever find yourself in Surbiton and fancy a curry, don’t visit Joy in Brighton Road! There are another three you can visit within 100 yards anyway, which means my search for a new curry house will not be a long one…

I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t earn my supporter stripes by joining the longest and most awkward trip of the season… and I still haven’t seen the Dons play north of Bradford. Bring on York and Gateshead thats all I can say! A few comments on the game if I may. I keep hearing reference to a Lewis Taylor dummy in not-so complementary terms, but I can’t look back far enough on the guestbook to find out what happened (well done to the Gimps for keeping the guestbook open, by the way). I’ll leave commentary on that to the 337 travelling Dons…

It seems as though Sebb Browns appearance earned glowing reviews, which is good news considering Jamie Pullen is now out for a month with a cracked ankle bone. I intitially though Jack Turner should be given his League debut, but for Sebb to come along and turn in a decent performance, it really takes the pressure off the manager perhaps being tempted into that. Plus if Jack comes in and has a terrible spell it could damage his confidence and actually hinder his development. Remember, Sebb is expendable in that sense, Jack certainly shouldn’t be.

On the subject of our young goalkeeping prodigy, his performance in the last round of the Youth Cup inspired my early optimism that he may be promoted to the first team. I think I mentioned in my report, he really looked like a man among boys, and is like a twelfth man for the side. He is in action, along with his promising colleagues, in the Second Round tomorrow at Kingsmeadow. I can’t stress enough how important it would be to the lads if a decent crowd turned out for this one. It would be tough to pick out one to look out for, but keep an eye open in particular for the two tricky, pacy forwards Matt Harmsworth and James Cottee, as well as captain Harry Knock.

This is the first time the Under 18’s have played a League sides youth setup in competitive football, mainly due to this being the first time the young Dons have qualified for the tournament proper. Bournemouth may be a league club, but with a decent home crowd firmly behind them, who knows? Perhaps they can teach the First team a thing or two about beating Football League sides, and in the process become the first Dons side in the AFC era to play on a Premier League ground, as a trip to the Reebok awaits the winner of this tie.

As for the first team, well a visit from York is going to be tough, especially with our home record in recent weeks. With a packed fixture list between now and Christmas (especially if we require a replay in our FA Trophy first round game), its time to get some form together. The New year could bring a gentle run towards midtable, or a decent Trophy run coupled with a playoff push, and I have a feeling the next few weeks will determine which we will see…

The Millwall Match Preview – FA Cup First Round Special

With about 24 hours to go until kick-off, I’ve finally got my act together to write a Match Preview. I’ve spent my time since the Crawley replay reading about the game, letting the cup fever get to me. Having said that, despite our presence in the Second Round draw this afternoon, I’m having difficulty looking beyond this tie. Thoughts have tended to sway more towards the nightmare of a heavy defeat than the miracle of victory.

Have the players been thinking too much about this one? The performance at Chester was unfortunate to say the least, and we can consider ourselves lucky that was our only League fixture. It’s a good job we had a great start as are supposedly concentrating on the cups this season…

It seems that over 3000 of us have bought tickets, and belatedly I have to say congratulations to the club for throwing on free coaches. Most Dons fans have a realistic view on the likely reception we will get from the regulars at The Den, but for the elderly or those with kids I sensed a few were thinking of ducking it just in case… Knowing they have travel from the ‘Meadow to the away end gives them a lot of reassurance, which pretty much means anyone who wants to come can come… and even those far-flung overseas types can get a chance to watch, either via their telly or the internet…

And about the 3200 we have already sold… I have heard that a number of people got a bit jumpy when their tickets didn’t arrive in the post as expected and got themselves down to Kingsmeadow to buy themselves a replacement… with only 200 for sale on the gate, perhaps anyone who does receive theirs through the post on Monday could meet at a pre-arranged point at London Bridge to sell them on to non-ticket holders, just to make sure everyone that does turn up on the night will get in?

This week I have personally been reminded just how much Millwall are disliked. I have had Arsenal, Foolham, QPR fans telling me just how much they want us to win tomorrow night. Plus we seem to have been adopted by knobhead local Chelski fans who were probably quite surprised to find the FA Cup doesn’t start at the Third Round stage and there is football below the Prem…

Strangely I feel a tiny bit of sympathy for our hosts, they obviously suffer this every week… although that sounds like the typical hug-a-hoodie style reaction you would expect from the Guardian-reading liberal elite that support Wimbledon. I’m sure I’ll be reminded of various misdemeanours their supporters have got up to in the past in the comments section… It’s just I remember going on a mates stag do in Manchester which just happened to be the night before Millwall’s Cup Semi at Old Trafford, stepping out of a bar at 1am to find locals chasing anyone with a London accent left, right and centre. These weren’t thugs, they were just normal blokes like me, who happened to be earmarked for a kicking thanks to their association with a club with a large hooligan element. Obviously I stood in the corner smoking a cigarette, bricking it while my mates decided to stay for one more…

Yet it doesn’t help when you see photos of Millwall fans in Galatasaray shirts when Leeds came to visit (that reminds me of the ugly cunt on the turnstile at Fisher with the MK scarf on… of course Fisher do have links of sorts with Millwall). Still you would expect Millwall to have a little more class than start resorting to the MK chants you would expect from inbreds such as Kettering and Chester… or maybe not? Either way, the thought that an unlikely victory for us will be held up and hijacked by the more retarded half of South West London (the ones that prefer their blue with white rather than yellow…) is a little unsettling to say the least.

But onto the game itself… Don’t ask me what sort of team Terry will play tomorrow. In fact I don’t think it really matters. The difference in class between our best possible XI and our worst is minimal compared to the gulf in class between the two squads. Terry will be better off picking a side that he is sure won’t bottle it, as shocks are caused in FA Cup ties such as these more because of mental strength than the ability to pass the football around nicely.

For example, last year Brown selected Haswell over Hussey at left back. Ultimately it didn’t work as our midfield collectively suffered an arsehole malfunction when it came to the big occasion, but don’t expect this to have put him off making these sort of decisions in future… The likes of Alan Inns could find himself playing a big part in Brown’s plans, if only because Inns has a bigger heart than most blue whales.

At times like these I always like to think of the 88 Cup Final. Lets face it, ignoring the fact that Wimbledon finished sixth that year, with the experience the Liverpool side had of big occasions, they would have won that game nine times out of ten, and the other one after a replay. The victory came about thanks to a moment of genius by Bobby Gould (not that he really had much of a say in the matter…). Letting the players go down the pub took their minds off the match when otherwise they would have been stuck in a hotel, playing cards and thinking too much about what was to come. As it was they turned up on the day without a care in their heads, they were by far the more relaxed side and went on to a famous victory.

Last year, I always thought the players did a little too much publicity before the game, and were tense on the night because of it. This year it seems the players dealt with the media at training on Thursday; I understand the players are coming in for a light training session on Monday morning but the best thing Brown could do after that is take them to Thorpe Park with their families for the rest of the day…

Lets face it, there will be no surprises coming Millwall’s way. Kenny Jackett will have watched Wimbledon, seen the DVD’s, noticed how we play, the strengths we have and will probably second guess how Terry Brown is planning on using them. The only way there will be a shock is if our boys play above themselves and a few of the Millwall players let their manager down on the night. As professionals you wouldn’t expect that to happen.

Yet I have just seen a Northwich side (a division below us) upset a Charlton team that are above Millwall in League One. Certain Charlton players looked slightly freaked out by their surroundings, and the Northwich fans seemed to notice and play on that. While Millwall will be on their own soil, they certainly won’t be used to the North Stand being full of away supporters. Lets use this to our advantage. Lets create a wall of noise, get on the back of any player in a blue shirt who looks like he might be having a tough time – right from the start. Lets really turn it into a home game.

If you haven’t got a ticket, get yourself to the ground on the day. Even if you get turned away, get yourself in the Millwall sections (obviously don’t wear your colours – this isn’t Trumpton or Staines…). And to all of you that are going, regardless of where you sit, enjoy the game… these don’t come along very often in the division we are in, they haven’t occurred at all as we rose through the Leagues, but are hopefully a sign of things to come when we eventually make it into League 2. As a club that doesn’t have a great record on beating higher ranked clubs in cup competitions (unless we eventually get kicked out for fielding illegible players…), surely we are due one now???

The General Specific (Thursday 5th November ’09)

So Terry Browns idea of reinforcements after a 3-1 defeat at the bottom club in which we saw a disjointed midfield and makeshift back line is to sign a striker? Ah, but this is by no means an ordinary striker… this is Luis Cumbers. The man who changed the course of Womble history by nodding into an open net and level the Ryman Playoff final at Staines, less than two years ago… In fact, I say man, but Luis is still just a boy, albeit a much stronger and physical looking boy than he was when here previously.

Perhaps he will write himself into the history books again at the New Den on Monday night? Indeed, Gillingham have allowed him to feature in the FA Cup this season, meaning the possibility has opened up that the Gills may allow his loan to extend beyond the one month initial period, maybe to the end of the season? Could there really be a possibility he may turn the loan move into a permanent deal? Well, lets not get carried away, Luis has to prove himself again to the Dons fans despite his goal against us in the draw at Ebbsfleet. Plus I’m sure if he impresses it may encorage the Gills to have another close look at him.

It’s likely that if Keds and Main are fit he will start on the bench, but is more likely to get the nod to come on than Monague, who will have to find some form after a promising start at the club and now finds himself slipping down the pecking order. Remember we still have an unfortunately injury hit kid in the reserves that wants to prove himself, and may get that chance at Monty’s expense…

I haven’t talked about Millwall yet, partly through cautiousness really. The news that we have already passed the 2500 mark has stung me into action now we find that there is a cap on ticket sales at 3400. Which seems frustrating with Millwall ensuring the two stands next to it are devoid of Millwall fans in their lower tiers… surely there isnt a safety implication in housing Dons fans there? I would imagine we should be mighty annoyed if the remaining tickets go by the weekend then arrive to see hundreds of empty seats in the visiting section…

There is more to this cup game than I care to write at the moment, in truth I’m saving a lot back for the main preview on Saturday (a bumper Anonymous Don special!) but wanted to have a moan about ticket sales in the mean time. In reality we should be lucky we have got over 3000 tickets, that certainly wouldn’t have been the case if we had visited Barnet or Dagenham, perhaps even somewhere like Brentford too?

Plus there is an important cup tie taking place at Kingsmeadow tonight, as the U18’s play their first ever game in the FA Youth Cup proper, having seen off Kentish Town, Hayes, Thamesmead and Tilford on their passage through the qualifying competition. A fixture at home to Sutton United, fellow Ryman Youth Leaguers, gives them a fantastic chance of progressing to a home Second Round game against Bournemouth. Without wanting to put pressure on the youngsters, it seems they have a better chance of moving to the third round and taking on Premiership Acadamy sides than our First team has! Win, lose or draw this evening, the lads have got further than any Dons side has in the competition so far, and I for one will certainly be hanging around after I collect my tickets for Monday in hope that they can go one step further…