News Round-Up – 31/5/11

The club have announced ticket prices for next season.

Adult tickets have risen by £1, concession and Under 16 prices by £2 (with the exception of U-16 terrace tickets, which remain frozen at £2).

The club state our prices will be just below League Two average, and from what I have seen of other clubs ticket prices last season that’s just about correct – I will conduct a more thorough analysis later in the summer (i.e. when I’m bored, there really is no news, and a few other clubs have announced their prices). Suffice to say we won’t be getting ripped off (by the standards of British football…).

Without sounding like the clubs unofficial cheerleader, if you’re planning on attending sixteen or more games on the terraces next term, you really are better of buying a season ticket and paying direct debit. In fact with the season ticket record looking like it might go this summer, the Strank and Tempest stands could effectively become season ticket lockouts.

While these prices also apply to the League and FA Cup, the article goes on to say “Prices have yet to be set for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and county cups”. Interesting in that it is the first time the club have acknowledged our reserves will be appearing in the county cups next season, great news for those of us who enjoy that kind of thing…

In other news, fresh from being induced into telling Paulo Di Canio what he and everybody else already knew, TB has ended any doubt he might make a move for loan misfit Kirk Hudson… although this story might stop a few of you out there having nightmares. The problem with Hudson is he has the building blocks of being a great player at this level, and will undoubtedly come back to haunt us at some point in the future.

Another Brentford player probably not coming our way is Chris Bush… although he seems to be taking his time signing the deal Brentford have offered. Message board gossip suggests the Dons might also be in for ex-Shrewsbury fullback Dave Raven, with no news forthcoming on Gareth Gwillim’s status at Dagenham.

Finally, news of a recently released player and not that surprising considering he scored ten goals on loan there last year, but Delano Sam-Yorke has been offered a contract at Basingstoke, although he seems to be holding out for a better offer…

New Round-Up 29/5/11 – No News

Looking back, relaunching my semi-regular look at all the latest Dons news just after the season finished wasn’t the best of plans… fair enough, seven days ago we had the worlds media – from heavyweight journalists to bedroom bloggers – falling over themselves to publish articles about the Dons. Now, well there are a few post-Eastlands stories still dripping out – Kedwell can’t do a piss, anyone? –  but beyond that local reporters up and down the country are having problems filling column inches.

The same reporter spoke to Terry Brown shortly after, trying to find a new angle on the Dons Eastlands triumph by questioning the Dons manager on competing in the same division as Paulo Di Canio next term. I’m kind of imagining this interview took place over the phone, with Brown perhaps mowing the lawn at the same time…

Either way, there’s not too much of a discussion to be had here – Swindon will either challenge Crawley for the title or finish 17th depending on how their rookie manager settles in (and, indeed, who is scouting his players for him…); the Dons will finish upper or lower mid-table depending on how a largely unchanged squad copes with the transition to L2 (and remember upper mid-table in this division equals the verge of the playoffs).

That hasn’t stopped the non-story being leapt on by not only myself, but a Swindon website desperate to fill post-season gaps in service provision (the Swindon guy kind of misses the point a bit as well… although Brown hasn’t managed at L2 level that’s more down to a fluke of history than any lack of talent on his part, he’s managed at most of the grounds in the division, knows most of the players and nearly all his fellow managers…).

This lack of information is a problem across the country. Take our captains name being mentioned in this interview with Andy Hessenthaler… now Kedwell to Gillingham will always be one of those rumours that just won’t go away, and I can see him going there at some point – next summer if he has a storming season and Gillingham get promoted (and we don’t…). Until then, Keds has another year option on his contract, which he has by all accounts committed to. Even if Brown succumbed to an act of compassion and allowed him to talk to his hometown club, he’d be looking for a fee at least in the region that Crawley offered last summer, a sum approaching six figures, and I just don’t think Gillingham are going to want to pay that.

Finally, the club announced on Thursday that next seasons pricing will be announced ‘very soon’, in the mean time season tickets will be available at last years prices until 17th June. From some of the chatter I’ve heard from even non-regular supporters looking to take up a season ticket for next year, I’ll be surprised if we don’t break records again his summer…

The General Specific (Tuesday 12th May ’09)

Well, it seems we are being given the bad news first. For those of you not up to speed, the following players were today released; Belal Aitouakrim (just when I’d learnt how to spell his name…), Tom Davis, Anthony Finn, Jason Goodliffe, Michael Haswell, Dean Mason, Michael Peacock, Luke Pigden and Chris Sullivan. I have to say there are few shocks here, though with negotiations still ongoing with many of last years squad members plus possible new signings its unlikely these players will be the last out of the door this summer.

I think longer tributes deserve to be paid to the four recognised first team regulars, which will follow later this week, but just a quick word on the five young lads who will be continuing their careers elsewhere next season.

Belal Aitouakrim – Constant injuries and a complete failure to find his form did for Belal. Whilst he found the net twice in that FA Trophy tie at Worcester, appearances were hard to come by. He possibly suffered most through missing the devastating start to last season through lack of fitness, and looked very ordinary, particularly when given the chance to impress against minor opposition in the county cups. The writing has been on the wall since Kedwell arrived, and Belal now has the chance to rebuild his career further down the pyramid.

Dean Mason – Pacy, strong young striker who won’t have any difficulties finding himself a club. Signed as one for the future, he looked more like one for the present at the start of the season with some brilliant cameos, including an important late goal to finish off Bognor. Sadly, I think the progress of the club has caught him out, and I wish him all the best in future.

Michael Peacock – Again failed to impress in the few opportunities given. It was always a bit of a gamble bringing him in from North Greenford in the summer, but like the other young players is perhaps unfortunate that the clubs development outstripped his own.

Luke Pigden – A young guy I had high hopes for when he broke through last season, Luke managed a few substitute appearances towards the start of the season. As I mentioned in my Player Review, Luke never looked out of place on the field, perhaps disappointing only in the minor cups where we expected a player of his potential to stand out and dominate games a little more.

Chris Sullivan – Viewed by some as an expensive mistake, Chris only managed a few minutes league time for us. Intended as a player that would compete for a strikers role, like Belal injuries meant he just didn’t seem to settle. Perhaps Wimbledon was the wrong club at the wrong time for him, after a great season the year before at Braintree I’m sure he hasn’t become a bad player overnight. I’m sure it’ll only take new surroundings for him to find some form.

For some reason I chose today, my busiest employment-wise for some time, to fill in my season ticket form and fax it to the club. The only problem was I was so distracted I filled in my debit card details when I wanted to pay direct debit… that resulted in a confused volunteer having to call me to sort it all out!  So while this sounds completely obvious, don’t be a wally like me, double check you’ve filled your form out correctly before you send it in. the club have a difficult enough job on their hands anyway, and the best way to help them through is to make sure everything is correct to start with! Let my embarrassment be a lesson to you!

If anyone is missing their football fix this early in the pre-season they could do worse than visit Oxhey Jets on Friday night for their Spartan South Midlands Floodlit Cup Final against Royston Vasey Town. Sadly I can’t make it myself, but I have heard plenty of other Wombles are making the trip up to Hertfordshire, so get yourselves up there and cheer the Jets on. And to all at Oxhey, the very best of luck from all of us who will only be there in spirit. For more details see Wagner’s posting on the WUP blog here – http://wup.me.uk/blog/?p=524

Finally, I received a really nice email from the New Zealand based editor of Barrows Holker Street Newsletter. HSN has been running for over a decade now and has reached its 2161st edition recently (that’s right… Two Thousand, One Hundred And Sixty-One editions… beat that, WUP!). Although primarily based on Barrow AFC there’s plenty of content to keep the average Conference fan happy as well, which may explain how he has managed to acquire over 800 subscribers worldwide! You could do a lot worse than sign up – more details can be found here – http://barrowfc.com/hsn