28 July 2007

Well, that was quite nice in the end. OK, it finished Druids 0 Grand Wizards 0 but should I be walking away this happy after a PSF? Let alone one we didn't win?

To answer that, I'll quote a well known DA-detractor from last season at the end of today's game. "I enjoyed that, it was watching football". And he said it with a genuine smile as well. I won't say what he thinks of Sam Hatton, I don't think his missus would be too impressed. If that doesn't answer your question, nothing will.

For those who weren't there, when we got going a bit more in the second half, we were running at defenders, getting to bylines, crossing them in. We were putting the effort in, we were passing quite nicely, finding spaces to (badly) shoot. And we looked more like a team rather than a collection of individuals. In short, a massive contrast to the dying days of last season.

Everyone is raving about Sam Hatton right now, and they're more than justified. For the most part, the new boys are settling in nicely (and I have to admit a secret liking for Daniel Webb). Beckford looks good as well. Still think Andy Little is our most important player, and I'd put him ahead of Paul Seuke any day. Just a bit unsure about Richard Butler though - if he gets fit he'll be a massive asset. The trouble is, that's a bit like saying if Joe Sheerin gets fit he'll be a massive asset. Can't help thinking the guy is slightly running out of time. I hope he isn't but nobody is irreplacable..

As for Marcus Gayle, well....

As usual, there's a "but" in all this, and it's a relatively sized one. Ryman teams won't nearly be so accomodating as today was. They'll harry us down, they'll do the occasional physical approach, and in short attempt to bring us down to their level. I just wait to see if we can adapt to the Ryman way of doing things. I expect it to be more like Woking rather than Salisbury next season.

Remember the old WFC days when part of the philosophy was to win the battle to play football after 20 minutes? I think we need that most of all. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed today. But I hope we're not lulled into any false sense of security. Ramsgutter will (literally) go for our throats, and we need to be prepared for that.

If we can cope with the rough stuff early on, and impose our game, there could be a few massacres next season, judging on what I saw today, and what people told me T&M was like. William Gigantic Gonads this might be, but there were spells today that would blow away virtually every other team in the Ryman. Remember the Bromley away (league) and Tonbridge game away last season? Think that and you've got it. But this is only pre-season friendly stuff, the real test starts on the 18th.

Can we do it? Yes. Will we do it? Wait and see. But by fuck I want to rip this league's arsehole apart next season.

Meanwhile...

Plus points: Repeat third paragraph above.

Minus points: We didn't score.

The referee's a.......: It's pre-season. I must control what I think of referees a bit more. Anyway..... he gave too many decisions for them. There, I expressed that calmly and with an element of control and dignity. The linesman on the other hand was a complete [CENSORED]. The blind [CENSORED] could stick his flag [CENSORED] question his parentage [CENSORED] refereeing licence from an Al-Qaeda operative in Stoke Newington [CENSORED] Peter Winkelmann and vaseline [CENSORED] goats.

Them: Think I'll put Salisbury in "clubs I like", even if it is a bit in the middle of nowhere. Methinks our top brass is picking the brains of their top brass as to how to progress as a club both on and off the field. Kudos for a decent price to get in (£6), and as a result people were more willing to buy food and raffle tickets. QED. As for their team, if I was a Salisbury fan I'd be a bit worried that a not-quite-first-choice eleven 2 divisions lower were more likely to win against my first team...

Point to ponder: Something grabbed me about the hold TB has on the players. It's hard to explain but I'll try. After Woking, he condemned the, ahem, over-exhuberant way some of our players went about the game. Today, bar the odd little niggle we were a lot more disciplined. And probably played better because of it. Can you remember any time recently (not just us) when a team actually follows what the manager wants? Actually, it was quite interesting watching TB walk around debriefing the players after the game.........

Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Their over-excitable PA bloke, who tried to whip up a frenzy (though obviously one that could never ever match one in Buckinghamshire) amongst the home fans. Apparently, according to an SW19 reader, the same bloke even thought we were playing in yellow and blue. Go figure. Mind you, he did wish us all the best and called us the proper Wimbledon, so he deserves a big kiss for that alone. (2) The sight of what looked like animal hooves around the sandy perimiter of the ground. No, I don't want to know why either, although a ground advert for Farmer Giles' Farmstead raises more than the odd suspicion. (3) At least I know where Stonehenge is now. I was seriously hoping the game would get mysteriously called off so I could have a quick look at it. Never been there before, you see, and I am a cultural desert.

Anything else? Yeah. Marcus Gayle. This was the first time I've seen him in our shirt for a good 7-8 years, and I did have to double-take when I saw him warming up today. I can't explain it, even though he wasn't always my favourite at WFC (especially towards his latter days with us). It was a case of "wow, yeah". Do you understand what I mean? Anyway, I decided to stay for a swift diet Coke afterwards, and who was in there being coerced into signing the Norwegian Dons flag? You guessed it. The guy has the same tone as a racehorse, and best of all he really didn't appear to resent mixing with us plebs. He certainly didn't look out of place walking with the rest of the squad onto the coach afterwards. Just imagine the reaction if he scores a headed goal at the Tempest End next season...

So was it worth it? Yes. Even if it was a pre-season friendly.

In a nutshell: More of the same over the next 9-10 months, please.

---

25 July 2007

Finally, a proper game under TB. Shame we lost 1-0, and I didn't bother writing too many notes to do a proper report.

Like just about everything you get at the moment, you can't really read too much into the result. It came about a minute after the game started, when we looked disorganised at the back, and from then they shut up shot in a way. In a PSF as well.

What did grab me was how much more "professional" we look. Or at least like a side who had some idea what to do, if not necessarily the skill or the fitness to do so. I'm told when things got a bit, ahem, heated, TB shouted to Goodliffe to calm things down. The new boys impress me most of all, perhaps more than the ones we've kept on (though I much prefer AL to Paul Seuke on last night's showing).

We also were a bit more dirty physical and knew what to do and when to do it. How Fergie didn't get red carded for his studs-up challenge I will never know. I think that's what we've lacked - people (literally) putting their boot in. The argy-bargy at times was classic Wimbledon, and we're going to need that next season.

Christ, can you imagine some of the clogger teams next season getting a taste of their own medicine? Next season will not be complete without some opposition bigmouth self-proclaimed hardnut laying sparko on the floor after messing with our defence. If it has to happen every game next season, so be it. The ends will justify the means, there's absolutely nothing to love about this league. The upcoming campaign could get very ugly very quickly : chances are we've ditched Ryman TV because we've signed a good deal with UFC.....

Our big problem last night was our forward line, or rather lack of it. I dunno what it was, but they seemed a bit, well, "meh". As the Yanks would say, certainly. It's probably a matter of match sharpness against a higher quality defence. I do wonder how much further RB has to go fitness wise, and I can't remember anything that Goddard did. I suppose when Marcus Gayle comes on, he and Jolly could be the goalgetters.

As for Danny Webb, he came on and niggled a lot. Time will tell if he'll do it for us in the Ryman, but I give him a better chance than I did this time yesterday. Time will also tell if he'll get a red card in our first three games...

All in all, I see progress in last night. As a comparison, I dug out the Aldershot report on here from the PSF last season (6th August). Compare and contrast.

"Another PSF, another PSF defeat. This time, we got treated to Paras 4 Civvies 1. And now the feelings of doom and doubt are upon us. Are we ever going to win a meaningless game ever again? Is the high pressure non-competititve match situation too much for us? How will we ever cope with players giving as much as 70% in the 90 minutes?

About to slit your wrists yet? Before you get the blade out, read on. This may be the worst PSF campaign since AFCW's first ever season, but on the flip side, it's better to get the shit out of the way now. The last time we played stonkingly before proper games began was in our last season in the Prem. And we all know how that turned out...

In hindsight, the result really doesn't matter. If you need to know about the game itself, we went behind, Rosco D'Insane scored an utter blinder which got the Shots fans applauding, we let a goal in soon afterwards and conceded two late ones. We could have scored a couple more ourselves, and with a bit more match sharpness we probably would have.

Time to panic? Not really. All it proves is that there's a very real gap between a full time Conference side and an amateur RP side. You almost can't begin to predict how we're going to do. If you're going to try though, consider this : there's no real vibe that everything is going to turn to shit. There's a feeling that something is about to happen. What, we don't know, but there doesn't appear to be the malaise that hit us very early on last season. This could be the most interesting season in some while."

No doubt some smart arse will dig out what I've written today and use it against me a year from now. And when I said interesting season, and something is going to happen, I didn't quite mean getting thrown out of the FAT and three points deducted. I'm keeping my gob shut this time round.

In all seriousness, the difference between July-August 2006 and July-August 2007 is frightening. If and when I ever get round to sorting out the archive, read what I was saying a year ago. Ah fuck it, you can't wait for me to get my arse in gear. Here's what I was saying for the Grays friendly last season, from 30 July 2006:

"I dunno about anyone else, but this has to be one of the most underwhelming pre-season campaigns going. So much so that I can't be arsed to write even a brief report on Grays yesterday. But in a nutshell : we lost, they were better than us and the ref/4th officials were cunts for not allowing a rotating substitution. What did they think it was, the FA Cup final?

For some reason, things feel flat. Whether it's DA on holiday (which gives a slightly less than proper feel to proceedings, if that makes sense), whether it's the lack of glamour ties - and I include FCUM in that - or whether it's just the fact that we've only won once, it's hard to pinpoint down.

It could be of course that we need a break from football and we haven't really had it. The World Cup was in our faces all summer, and might have managed to put a lot of people off football. After all, what's your most abiding memory of that tournament? Bet "cheating" comes top of most peoples' list. Oh yeah, and those WAGs types, which does at least prove that it is possible to have a life after prostitution.

Are people bored by football? Or indeed AFCW? I don't think people will get bored of going and meeting their mates, having a laugh or two etc. But there's a feeling that it doesn't really matter right now. Mind you, when Carshalton comes around..."

I can't write that now, even flippantly. The most important thing I gained from last night wasn't the scoreline, or even the performance, but how things feel a lot different now from a year ago. And that is 50% of the battle won already.

Of course, changes are in the air, and we now have a new stadium sponsor. Yup, KM will now be called the Cherry Red Records Fans Stadium, or Cherry Red Stadium for short. No, I've no idea how much they're paying us for naming rights, but I bet it ain't a couple of quid and free pork scratchings at the bar. Well, I hope it isn't anyway. All money coming in is good, and CRR are known Wimbledon fans.

So, why haven't they come in before? Well, these comments from Iain McNay (CRR's top bod) are telling:

"Cherry Red is really happy to step up its involvement with the club as it becomes more and more professional in the way it is operating, and the ambition of reclaiming its league status becomes more and more realistic.”

Hmm. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, since day one SW19 has always maintained the view that AFCW in its more idealistic form wouldn't go beyond Ryman One (watch somebody now produce evidence that I didn't say it), and this sort of investment shows just how serious we are as a football club now.

If we're markedly different on the pitch now from July 2006, god knows how much we've changed off it since even as recently as last year. Whether it was the final realisation that we didn't walk on water, or whether it was the FAT/FAC run, I don't know, but this sort of deal would have been unthinkable about even last year

The club has got more professional, and if truth be told is on its way up again. It could be that companies are less wary of joining up with us now, lest they get tarnished with the "corporate sellout" mentality some of our fans have/had. And of course, us becoming a lot more viable....

Only thing that annoys me is the club's continued insistance of keeping the utterly wank "Fans Stadium" name. Guys, it hasn't worked. Nobody really uses it, it goes against the very tribalistic nature of football fandom, and it's the most cringeworthy marketing tool since the C***y G**g bollocks were put on WFC shirts. If anything, it looks even more out of place with a corporate name in front of it. With luck, it will die a natural death when people get fed up of pronouncing its full name.

Still, I might have to label it the Rot-Kirschrot Volkstadion now, which when you think about it has quite a good ring to it......

---

21 July 2007

Ahhhh.... so long pre-season. It's nice to be back at a game where I don't have to concentrate for 90 minutes plus. With all the hype and expectation over TB's tenure, I really, really couldn't wait to get down to West London today. You see, we might pretend we like going to Ryman grounds (well, actually we don't pretend at all now) but when you go to a place people have actually heard of, in a league setting, it just reinforces what you've missed league wise.

I always say the same thing whenever we visit a league ground. We pretend we don't want to be back in the league, but deep down we miss it like fuck. It remains dormant whenever we go to Borehamwood, or Staines, or whoever. We don't really feel it at KM. We almost keep it in check whenever we play a Conf side (I say almost). But even for a PSF, you realise the League is where it's at. And to be honest, it's where we should be. And you know it too.

So, to today. Well, Bee....... hang on, what the fuck do you mean when you say the game was called off? This is July, dammit. Not November, or January. July is supposed to be a sweltering month, with flying ants and barbeques and inconsiderate neighbours playing that shite Kiss FM wank at 4am and lackluster PSFs. It's not supposed to have a reduced fixture list. Oh, I suppose it did rain a little bit recently, According to the Daily Express, it was supposed to be 2 months worth of rain in a day. Mind you, according to the Daily Express Diana was murdered by the CIA/Royal Family/Al-Fayed/Carlos Tevez, a storyline they never tire of repeating...

Anyway, none of what you associate with July above has happened. Except the flying ants of course, horrible bastards. Especially the ones with wings, the BBC's "Threads" refused to factor swarms of the eight legged arseholes in because they didn't want to scare people any further..

In all seriousness, while I ultimately needed this Saturday off from distractions* I have to say I was really looking forward to this. And TBH it's a setback in our pre-season. It may have saved us from injury, but we need games. And Brentford was a goodun in more ways than one.

* - nothing serious, just trying to cram 10 lessons worth of German lessons into one week. Expect this site to be in three languages soon, German, English and the language I usually write in.

Will Brentford offer to re-arrange the fixture? Hope so, although I doubt it. Is it me or does it feel like we're hardly playing any PSFs this time round? Yes, I know in the space of a fortnight we've got Woking, Salisbury, Fi$her and FCUM, and it's probably no less packed than usual. But consider pre-season tours are a plenty right now to have just one game played is a bit, well, odd.

Granted, you couldn't help today, but I do wonder why there wasn't a first 11 PSF this midweek just gone. Couldn't we find anyone? Sure Sutton or Hayes/Yeading would have obliged if we'd asked nicely. Is TB so concerned with pre-season injuries that he really wants them at a minimum?

OK, it's not a criticism. Well, actually, it is. I want to watch some AFCW games, and I've been horribly frustrated in doing so. Right now it seems there's as much chance of anyone winning a BBC phone-in quiz as there is of me making a game. I fully expect Woking to get called off on Tuesday, and I bet I have to work this Saturday for Salisbury (trying to get out of it, don't worry dear reader). Hell, I couldn't even make RPV. And of course, me not getting to games equals no SW19 report. And trust me, somebody moans like a Main Stander when there isn't one...

In fact, with the exception of Jake Leberl, things have been almost too quiet on the transfer front. Goddard is staying with us for now, if he gets his attitude sorted. Other than that, it's only the weather that keeps any sort of interest up. I could tell you about me getting Setanta, but that's for another time when I really have bollock all to write about.

Anyway, let's have a warm-up for this upcoming season. I know I didn't see any action today, but that's hardly unusual.....

Plus points: We didn't lose.

Minus points: We didn't win.

The referee's a........: Complete and utter goat semened stained wanker. What kind of piddling excuse is excess water on the pitch anyway? Brentford are professionals, they should be made to play in 10 foot of water. Honestly, they'll be wanting summer breaks before long....

Them: Why don't I like Brentford? OK, there's something of the irritating cock factor about them (think lead singer of Hard-Fi) and they make up the bulk of H&R's support, but they're not Chelski or the other big London clubs. Yet they're not nearly as likeable as Barnet or Leyton Orient. There's no obvious adopted second team about them. Is it something to do with the West London air? Anyway, I think they're quite pro-Franchise, so fuck them. The rate they're going, they'll probably end up in Bucks once the first Franchise folds....

Point to ponder: Apart from how I've managed to get this far for an abandoned game? Here's one. If we'd played today and lost, how would we have reacted? Brentford have been playing quite badly of late, and we believe that we're invincible next season. A quick down to earth thump, perhaps? We await the first genuinely heartfelt "Brown Out" cry.

Womble aggro: Well, there wasn't any. But I'm in report writing pre-season mode, and I need to try out all possibilities. I do have little doubt that a Womble did a rather nasty fart in a bar in Tenerife last night....

Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Brentford v AFCW off. Raynes Park Vile vs Whitehawk on. Vile lost 1-0 by the way. Both areas of London had the same amount of rain fall on it. Go figure. (2) Come to think of it, the weather is worth a category all by itself isn't it? Thing is, if the end result of all this environment stuff is more freaky weather, we'll just end up adapting like we always do. And besides, if the icecaps do melt, they'll probably flood Ramsgate.....

Anything else? Urm, not really. A day of desolation, thumb twiddling and mind-numbing boredom, wondering when the next bit of football is coming from. Bit like last season then.

So, was it worth it? Yes, I've forgotten just how frustrating a day with a postponed day can be. Just didn't expect it in July, that's all.

In a nutshell: Roll on, er, winter.

---

12 July 2007