Grimace

11/10/2024 06:16 AM

Well, that was sub-optimal…

It’s always annoying and disappointing to end a winning run, especially at home.

I suppose after Lidl Ocean Sea 0 Birds Eye 1, we shouldn’t be too down about this. First home league defeat since March, isn’t it?

And to be fair, it wasn’t a bad game, but I left yesterday thinking we dropped a bollock.

Post Franchise blues? Perhaps. Just as we seem to have finally learned to handle playing them, we still can’t shake off the following game against a proper club.

As it proved to be against the haddock munchers. We started well enough, had a goal disallowed as well, but Grimsby were no mugs, and they were coming into it more.

And then, the moment that just ruined your weekend.

I’ve just rewatched it for the first time since it happened practically in front of me, and neither Goodman nor Johnson come out of it well.

We defended it as well as Kamala Harris defended Wisconsin.

To be fair, our push to Make AFCW Great Again did sort-of start, but something was off throughout the afternoon.

It was as though nothing we could have done would have got us anything. A deflection that would normally get a corner became one that bounced off our player, that sort of thing.

I forget when it was, but we nearly equalised with an own goal, but it just went the other side of the post instead.

A couple of off-days didn’t help (see Smith, Alistair) and it’s easy to forget just how unsatisfying football can be.

If truth be told, we just have to dust ourselves down and, to use the utterly wanky phrase football people love, go again.

It is disappointing to suffer defeat knowing it’s your own dozyness that cost us. And the problems about scoring goals haven’t gone away.

We’ve got another week to sort things out now, unless we discover one of our players has qualified for the Burkina Faso national side, and has been called up to face Senegal and Malawi.

Of course, we’re due an away win in the league, and it would be typical to do it in the arse end of the country at Barrow where nobody sees it…

Plus points: We had a go in the second half.

Minus points: We lost. Shit goal to concede. Too much sloppyness. Increased sense we weren’t going to score.

The referee’s a…: I know we shouldn’t blame the officials for us losing, but would it have killed him not to award a free kick against us every time we dared to step in their area?

Not sure where that six minutes came from either. Their keeper was down for about three for starters.

Them: I can see why they’ve won six (?) on the spin away from home, as they seemed to know how to see the game out.

Big bastards they were too, and it was like the bad old days when Northern sides were physically bigger and stronger against our bunch of vegans.

Their manager was often having a go at the fourth official, apparently. Wasn’t he linked with us when we were on the lookout for a new one?

Decent turnout by their fans, very decent in fact. No Harry the Haddock inflatables this time, though our stewards would have probably thrown anyone holding one into the Wandle.

Oh, and they got very excited about somebody apparently being tossed out of the main stand…

Point to ponder: Doesn’t yesterday prove why we should get our arses in gear about our away form?

We’ve been relying too much on winning every game in SW17, and that’s simply not going to happen in the real world.

I haven’t checked who our next home game is against, league wise, but it’s possible we may well lose that simply because that’s how football works.

And should that happen, watch the meltdowns begin.

The next question is – how exactly do we go away from home and finally get some three-pointers under our belts?

I don’t know, I’m not Johnnie Jackson or an AFCW squad member. Although my somewhat flippant answer is to score more goals than the opposition.

Actually, it’s that simple.

Yesterday, one gets the feeling if we’d had an AAH or somebody else who can score out of nothing, we might have got something.

That’s not a luxury we have this season, although ironically we stand a better chance of progressing after January because of that.

There’s still some doubts over Goodman, and one has to think we’ll need to tinker again with the defence.

I don’t think there’s much fundamentally wrong with us, but we’ve lost our mojo and we need to get it back.

The January transfer window is slowly appearing on the horizon, and it’s this stage of the season where we begin properly planning.

And perhaps a couple of players will need reminding of that.

Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) Burger van in the Home Bargains car park. Ever notice there’s none of those outside PL? 2) Forgetting how cold football can get. 3) Girl with guitar playing Creep by Radiohead outside the club pub at half time. She looked as though she didn’t belong there either.

Anything else? The club update on Friday seems to have triggered a few people, but I’m not really sure why.

AFCW isn’t bullshitting when it says most L2 clubs make a loss, that paying off all the bonds will help a lot, that we need to avoid a situation where we’re running out of cash.

I genuinely can’t see where it’s telling people to vote 50+1, unless the original copy got changed (which is just poor, sloppy comms on their part).

You don’t need to be a Professor of English to know the club is for it. They’re not putting it on the table for a laugh.

This is something your editor has a lot of sympathy with AFCW/the decision makers over, because they’re the ones at the proverbial coalface.

It’s realising quite quickly that relying on player sales and generating funds through sweating the Plough Lane asset won’t go nearly as far these days.

Running a football club, especially a professional one, is expensive – and it’s going to get more and more costly from now on.

Player wages aren’t going to drop, neither is the cost of turning the lights on (literally as well).

I expect most people reading this would be horrified just how much we have to pay out each week/month just to keep functioning.

We’re also starting to see what has always been the fatal flaw about the entire Dons Trust/”fan ownership” thing.

It’s what happens when some very tough financial decisions have to be made against the political activists in our support.

Most people aren’t interested in the “politics” side of the club, which is why those involved tend to be members of political parties and/or try to become councillors.

That probably explains why the Dons Trust seems to be more like a local political party rather than a decision making entity of a multi-million pound business.

It probably also explains why you hardly get any people with business acumen involved. That kind of thing doesn’t mix well with activism.

Indeed, I’d even suggest that it’s a main reason why we’re now having to push through 50+1 now rather than ten years ago when we should have done.

Those who have stood for DT elections in the past with some actual knowledge of how companies run have often been treated with hostility, by those hiding behind their party membership cards.

The majority (make that vast majority) aren’t involved in politics though, and that might give some hope for the future.

Most of those watching the game yesterday won’t care a shit whether there was some poor wording in a club statement, or that certain procedures in a boring meeting aren’t being followed.

They go to football to enjoy themselves, to have a couple of beers, to escape from the politics of their daily lives.

The activists forget that too often. Or perhaps more accurately, don’t care.

As for this current attempt to get 50+1 through, I don’t think it will. Not this time anyway.

Anyone who got given a Dons Trust membership this summer (like your editor) may wonder if there’s actually a vote for this going on. I haven’t seen any links or emails.

There are undoubtedly questions that do need to be asked, like whether this vote is simply for the ability to go down to 50+1.

Having the current cap isn’t working, has not worked since we’ve got back into the EFL, and will become even more unworkable with modern professional football.

One final thing though – if the club really wants to push through 50+1, it should just show our defending for the first goal yesterday and say this is all we can afford right now…

So, was it worth it? Nope.

In a nutshell: Home sweet fucking home.