MATCHWATCH : AFC Wimbledon (h)

[retro royal]

That was poor, to many hollywood balls from Wing, Savage and Fraser over committing themselves, Jacobs less said the better, nothing up top.

Wanting Hunt to succeed but isn't looking great.

[The Cap]

The Garcia chance at 0-0 obviously massive. We were on top and probably go on to win if he scores, plus it would have been a lovely team goal to build confidence.

But it's newly promoted Wimbledon at home. We should still have had enough after that miss.

Physiological advantage to the Wombles for Carabao then? Mind you, it's just like the lads to turn up. In fact, any chance League One can be rehashed to Carabao League One?

[Sutekh]

Putting this garbage result at the door of the management. Seemingly starting with Wing as a DM when Fraser is an actual DM. Playing Garcia instead of Doyle. Playing WiFi through the middle. All decisions that should already be known to be no-nos.

[Snowflake Royal]

FT 1-2. Really really poor result. I'm sure we'll get excuses about Garcia's miss and the late penalty appeal, and maybe I'd be sympathetic after losing to Huddersfield, but no way that's acceptable today.

Only 3 games in so no need to panic, but it feels like we're some way off where we want to be. We're conceding soft goals and not creating chances; even today we only scored a Wing screamer. We need to see progress in the next 5 games or so, otherwise it will be time to start panicking.

Hunt has to take some of the blame today. I would have started Elliott, but to not even bring him off the bench when chasing the game is criminal. I know we lack a CF, our flagship CB signing is injured and the team is gelling. But I think he should be getting more from the resources he has.

I'm not against Hunt, but I wouldn’t take Garcia's miss as a defence of Hunt, because he shouldn't have been on the pitch. That itself was a selection error. And a goal against Pompey reserves doesn’t make him a winger.

[Snowflake Royal]

I wonder if there's an issue in that Hunt isn't used to having the luxury of selection choices, or the experience of squad building.

Because there seems to be a lot of strange selection choices, and people seemingly out of position.

Things seem a bit at random.

[WestYorksRoyal]

This is where it changes, people are going to start turning on the management if this game is lost. Doyle really should be starting, not an overrated 17 year old. Really showing we desperately need an experienced striker.

Our next 2 games are difficult. If we lose our opening 5, how long until Hunt is under genuine pressure? I know we could use an extra CF and the team is gelling, but the reality is this is a top 10 L1 squad and we can see limitations in our tactics and selections. It could get ugly quickly.

No evidence of that. Lost a boatload of goals over the last 8 months and not replaced them. Central defensive pairing gone and replaced with what look like worse players.

We've got a Cat 1 academy producing talent like Abrefa, Garcia, Stickland, Ahmed, and Ehibhatiomhan. We have experienced L1 players like Wing, O'Connor, Pereira and Lane. We have relatively young players but with relevant experience in L1 or higher like Elliott, Savage, Burns, Kyerewaa, Fraser, Jacob and O'Mahony. Jacob and O'Mahony are taking pelters in particular, but they played a part in Championship squads last season so will not be mugs.

This squad should definitely be top half. Bottom half is acceptable underperformance in a season of transition if you can see green shoots setting us up for next season. But a proper relegation battle is not acceptable, and it looks like we're in one at the 10 -15 game mark, that is when Hunt needs to go.

[Hound]

I’m not normally one for knee jerks but I thought that was diabolical

Excellent first 20 or so - and that was driven by the front 3 who really looked the part at that point. What followed was dreadful

I thought Fraser (who is a decent player) was utterly pointless, Savage headless and that’s as bad as I’ve seen Wing play

Jacob and Stickland aren’t good enough. Can see why we brought in Williams now

Doyle and Elliott getting 25 mins between them is absolutely criminal in that type of game

We look quite tidy when we play the ball around but seem content to hammer the ball up to Kelvin on MoM who literally never win a header. They are not target men, simple as

Abrefa, Doyle and Danny K all good. Ahmed did fine and impressed. Otherwise pretty shite

[Linden Jones' Tash]

I'm a bit worried about our (lack of) attacking play....

Confidence is fragile and the lack of conviction from forward players to create and take chances isnt helping....

I hope Hunt has the wherewithal to turn it around, but this is more reminiscent of caretaker Hunt than last season's Hunt....

[WestYorksRoyal]

If we need a result to go our way to kick start things, who will be the "typical Reading" and lose to us? Last season Orient lost their first 5 and the turning point was when they won at the SCL courtesy of a CBC howler, because of course Charity FC would do that.

Another couple of winless games and teams facing us will be nervous of being *that* team which loses to the hospital case.

[Orion1871]

I am one for knee jerks so.

Pereira - summed up by needlessly picking up the ball when he should have just played it with his feet. Promptly chucked it into the ground and desperately tried to chase it to prevent a goal. 1

Ahmed - inconsistency of youth. Couple of good tackles but not to the same standard as Tuesday. 3

Stickland - Play the ball instead of weakly giving it away to a player you know is going to outpace you if he gets the ball because you're as slow as a tortoise. 0

Burns - Nothing really obviously bad. Just incredibly average and not a patch on Bindon. 3

Jacob - This useless twat makes Clinton Mola look like Maldini. At fault for the first goal. 0

Wing - lost the ball several times. Not good enough defensively to be the one tasked with protecting the defence. Move him further forward. Would be 1, but he scored. 2

Fraser - Defensive midfielder asked to play in an advanced role. Unsurprisingly didn't play well as he was out of position and is not a creative player. 1

Savage - Earth to Charlie. The season has started. Low energy, no drive and lacking in all the areas that make him a good player. 1

Kyerewaa - One bright spot. Excellent running and always looking to take people on. 4 MotM

Garcia - utterly atrocious. Has miss of the season wrapped up in August. Second half Kelvin runs out wide to keep the ball in play, passes the ball to Garcia and is now out of position with no one in the centre. What does he do? Shanks a loopy cross straight into the hands of the Wimbledon keeper. 0

Kelvin - Ran around a lot. Should have scored instead of passing to the fraud on the left. 2

Noel - Got it all wrong. Starting 11, subs and tactics. 0.

[Sutekh]

Persuade Coppell or McDermott they want to come in as a management consultant to help out the inexperienced manager.

[traff]

On a more positive note some bookies are now offering 80/1 on us to win the league. Easy money

[Elm Park Kid]

Honestly - it's the sort of performance I'm expecting right now. Fans massively underestimate the impact of wholesale squad changes. Replacing one player with a similar quality doesn't mean that you have the same strength team.

We're going to stumble through this month and next before picking up in October. If we're not out of the relegation zone by November then i'll start to get worried. Not before.

[Hound]

The Garcia chance - would like to see again but I felt the front 3 messed it up between rather than just being a poor finish. Danny’s ball too short, rank cross from Kelvin who should have shot, and an awkward attempt at a finish from Garcia.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I wonder how big the O'Connor injury has been defensively. He's not just a defender, he's a leader. He potentially owns getting contact on their cross for the first and certainly sets the tone to ensure they can't make those simple passes around the edge of the box for the second. He was our primary target, flagship signing and we're conceding exactly the sort of soft goals we signed him to stop.

[Hound]

Honestly - it's the sort of performance I'm expecting right now. Fans massively underestimate the impact of wholesale squad changes. Replacing one player with a similar quality doesn't mean that you have the same strength team.

We're going to stumble through this month and next before picking up in October. If we're not out of the relegation zone by November then i'll start to get worried. Not before.

I’m not worried particularly. We’ve some quality in the side and at times we look really good

But every loss is making it less likely we’ll challenge this season and tbh Hunt doesn’t really seem to know what he’s trying to do to me. Chopping and changing every game, esp up front. That was a performance that will put him under a lot of pressure already

[Armadillo Roadkill]

We played like strangers. Wimbledon played like a team. They deserved to win.

We're not just suffering because of not having a striker. We're also shipping two goals per game.

It's all so disconnected - no fluency, because they don't seem to know what the others are doing.

Don't know what happened to BBCRB, but they had three callers in a row who all knew what they were talking about and made good, insightful comments. Tim actually sounded a bit annoyed at having callers making good points he couldn't dismiss.

We're close to be a decent side, but with some glaring problems. Let's hope Hunt and his team can sort them out soon.

[Elm Park Kid]

Honestly - it's the sort of performance I'm expecting right now. Fans massively underestimate the impact of wholesale squad changes. Replacing one player with a similar quality doesn't mean that you have the same strength team.

We're going to stumble through this month and next before picking up in October. If we're not out of the relegation zone by November then i'll start to get worried. Not before.

I’m not worried particularly. We’ve some quality in the side and at times we look really good

But every loss is making it less likely we’ll challenge this season and tbh Hunt doesn’t really seem to know what he’s trying to do to me. Chopping and changing every game, esp up front. That was a performance that will put him under a lot of pressure already

Yeah, maybe he doesn't. But what if this is a career where you need 4-5 years to learn the job?

[Sebastian the Red]

Just got home from my first game at the MadStad in nearly a decade.

First 20 mins or so the team looked sharp, and went forward well, although the play down the right looked far stronger than down the left (Garcia?). His miss on about the 25 minute mark was the turning point, it was a terrible miss and he was really, really poor from that point forward.

The captain, Wing(?), did not look like a DM to me. Should have been pushing further forward and controlling the game a little more, although I suspect that he is perhaps a little too big for his boots as he kept trying quite intricate stuff which he lacked the technical ability actually to pull off. Obvs his goal was skillz.

The whole back line looked quite fragile - Ahmed looked particularly poor (EDIT: I've just seen that he's only 17 - this makes sense). Although we dominated the possession and the game from the opening we looked like we could concede on the break at any time and that proved to be the case.

The big chap up front whose name I will not begin to try to spell got absolutely bullied by their centre backs. Even when he did manage to hold up play only the right wing (Kyrewa?) tried to play off him, but most of the time there was no support at all. It worked better toward the end when Wing pushed up and supported the attacking options more.

All in all, there are signs of a potentially decent team - especially the 11 that finished the match. I wouldn't go so far as to say a draw would have been a fair result because Wimbledon just had a lot more game sense than we did, and once they got ahead dictated the tempo really well.

If nothing else, it has made me want to come back more often. My 7 year old (his first game) fell in love right away and has banished all of the shit talk he's been going on about from school of supporting vaguely successful premier league clubs. If the new kit wasn't so utterly, utterly shit (what the oxf*rd were they thinking?!) I would have bought him a shirt on the way out to seal the deal.

[traff]

5 – Pereira
Not a lot to do, but pretty casual on occasion.

6 – Ahmed
A little hot and cold, unsurprisingly.

5 – Burns
Average CB performance.

3 – Jacob
Was so excited when we finally got a specialist LB, but currently looking like a wasted loan space.

4 – Stickland
Just not convinced he’s any better than Holtzman or Kanu.

5 – Fraser
Think he’ll be a useful addition, but needs to play as a true 6.

8 – Wing
Too much pressure on him to do everything. That goal alone means he can’t be rated lower than an 8.

5 – Savage
Seems to have started slowly, playing it a bit too safe at times. it really stands out when Wing sits so deep.

8 – Dan K (Chewy? Not sure how to pronounce his name.)
Bright spark and adds a little bit of shithousing (which we probably need in this league).

6 – Kelvin E
Not a big fan of him in the 9, but did OK. First touch is frustrating at times, but then he can look excellent.

5 – Garcia
Still very young. A couple of his first touches were sublime, but not sure he starts in front of others at this point.



I think the ref got all the penalty calls right except the last one. I was perfectly in line and the shirt was nearly pulled off his back — the lino should have spotted it.