The Foodball Blog — Life after Ali
By Stephen Hayward
Welcome to the other side of my blog!
It’s been a busy week in the world of AFC Wimbledon! Firstly welcoming fans from what is one of the furthest away grounds to Plough Lane and then promptly beating them 2–0, to then seeing no return from our trip to lovely Lancashire on Tuesday and all that while still mourning the transfer of our beloved Iraqi Scouser :’(
So with a must-win game coming up tomorrow against a Morecambe side who have lost as many as they have won in away fixtures, I’ve picked out three talking points ahead of the game.
- Josh Kelly WILL score
Oh Josh. It was always going to be tough to come in and instantly pick up where Ali left off, especially when this is your first ever taste of EFL football.
In my opinion, he grew into the Barrow game really well and looks to me like the real deal. We’ve finally got ourselves a January striker that WILL score (messrs Ablade and Tomas rear your heads), but so far in his 3 Wimbledon appearances, he hasn’t. So why? Well let’s be honest he should’ve had two on his home debut, but the quality of Paul Farman is a far cry from the slight predictability of goalkeeping you get in the National League, hence why Josh couldn’t round or chip him. But from long balls over the top, he looked excellent. He constantly kept himself in the battle for the ball and used his diminutive yet dominant frame to muscle his marker off and give chase, and this weekend, we will need to see that again.
Our choice of attack-minded passing hinders his clear goalscoring talent too. From the brief glimpse I saw of him playing for Maidenhead United and Solihull Moors in the preview video posted after his announcement, it is clear that he thrives on cutbacks and pure chaos in the box, a proper poacher. We currently don’t provide anywhere near enough quality passes to help bring that poacher playstyle out. Our crosses are always from deep and are typically whipped for the likes of Omar, Pelly or possibly a late-arriving James Ball to hopefully win and either score from or knock down to Kelly or others. Playing this way simply won’t maximise his talents. We need to get JKG, Curtis, Tilley, Sasu, Hus, Ogs and JC to use their technical ability and/or pace to drive to the by-line and either dink a little ball to the back post or just drill a ball in, in the hopes that Kelly can get a foot, head or literally anything to it. You can liken this to Hojlund for Manchester United. Before we were seeing a striker trying to fit into a pre-set team mentality, but given time to work on teamwork and tactics, United are now getting the most out of their star striker; if we do the same, then we will too.
So if he combines that combative playstyle he has with a bit more team cohesion and understanding, I think all Wombles in attendance tomorrow (myself included) will see a Josh Kelly goal finally being scored.
2. JJ and Skivo’s contracts were not premature
It didn’t come as a surprise to me when we announced the extension of the duo’s contracts, it was more of a formality. And before I get pots and pans thrown at me for my opinion, I can explain it in three words. Better home form. Yes there are other factors playing into it such as position in the table and a pleasing style of play and competitiveness from the team, but the fact we can now go to Plough Lane and either expect a win or be surprised by a cracking result (Mansfield and Barrow being two of those), proves their worth to us as a club.
In the years since moving on from Ardley, we’ve hired and fired managers before we’ve allowed them to implement their projects. They’ve typically had a window or two to improve the sides they were given, taken us on an alright run of form, and then promptly thrown out when the first whiffs of failure were in the air. Now, that isn’t to say JJ’s management of us has been smooth sailing, as there was the rollercoaster of last season after a tumultuous January completely wrecked our season, but he’s had four transfer windows now and multitudes of matches to take the team onto the path he and Terry envision us being on. Before January came along last year we were on the edge of playoffs and one of the most dangerous teams in League Two. Had we kept the loanees, not got rid of Assal and added Ali too, there can’t be much doubt that we would’ve been promoted. You look at this season too and after a stuttering start, we fired into gear around November and haven’t really looked back. So, there can now be a confidence about the side when we play teams for the rest of this season. The boost the contracts will give will be evident soon and with the staff now knowing where they will become summer, the players have just got to play their way into new contracts and then finally, we will be an unstoppable force.
3. Home and Away ain’t all sunshine and rainbows
Unlike the Aussie based TV series, our away form is not all sunshine and beaches at the moment. Yes I may have just waxed lyirical about our management duo, but if we’re to achieve what some could consider a premature visit to the playoffs, we need to fix our away form. The facts are simple, we haven’t won away since 23rd December against Crawley and we won’t be able to fix that until Doncaster away on the 24th of this month. Two months without an away win for a side wanting playoffs doesn’t add up.
Weirdly, I’ve been used to a side that could easily turn up on an away day, but then as soon as the lovely sight of Plough Lane comes into view, the team have shrunk and become a shadow of themselves. That hasn’t been the case this season. I know it may have taken until late September to gain our first home win (this was also our tenth league game of the season), but since then, we’ve only lost three league games at home. And our away form has been formidable up until recently too. Two losses in the thirteen away games up until Wrexham on 13th January is seriously impressive. So what gives? Well I think the answer is simple, we’ve found our rhythm at home, and lost our mojo away. Everything at Plough Lane at the moment is seemingly going hunky dory. I can only speak for myself, but the matchday experience is great, the team performance’s are top notch and our atmosphere is beginning to play a huge part. The Lane has really become our fortress and we really are seeing the sun shine down on us, finally!
When on our travels however, there feels like there is a missing link, and no his name isn’t Ali Al-Hamadi. Even before he left for Ipswich, our losses in away games were questionable. In the away day thumping at Morecambe, we registered 23 shots on goal, but only 5 on target. Against Gillingham we registered 8 shots, the same as they did, but only 2 were on target. They were away losses including the Iraqi striker. Without him, and Omar too, at Wrexham we produced perhaps the bleakest reading. 17 shots on goal, only ONE on target. I’m not going to do the maths, but all those conversion rates come out well below 50%, maybe even under 30%. Simply not good enough
This is a pattern I can only see continuing for the time being too and I don’t know if I can put a positive spin on this section like I have done for the other two. Until we learn to take those chances again like we were doing early on in the season, we’ll miss out. We have the ability to be clinical, and that ability needs to be turned into fully fledged results or else it’s going to be a hopeful but ultimately painful end to the season.
So that’s that! I’ve had my little scribble down of thoughts, this time about my great love for all things AFCW. Life after Ali will be a tougher experience, and it’s going to take time for everything to click into gear. However, tomorrow’s game will be pivotal in our race for play-offs, and hopefully we’ll be able to embarrass the Shrimpers like they did to us a few months back. COYD!!
