AFC Wimbledon – Npower Championship November 2014/2015

Welcome to my AFC Wimbledon blog and in this post we will see how November went in the Npower Championship for my side.

This post will contain the following:

• Fixtures
• Results
• Review of results
• League Table
• Player Ratings

 

Fixtures

In the month of November we have six matches to play. We will be playing three at home and three away in the Npower Championship. The first match comes at home to Watford, I think this will be a draw. The second match comes away to Sheffield United. They are currently below me so I think we can draw again. The third match is away to Peterborough United. I think we will lose this game. The fourth match comes at home to Barnsley who are having a strong season making me think we will lose. The penultimate match of the month comes against Ipswich Town away who also are looking strong so I think we will lose. The final match of the month is against Blackburn Rovers at home who are having a poor season so I think we can collect a draw.

Predicted Results -  D  D  L  L  L  D

Results

We managed to get a draw against Watford which I was pleased with although I had a slight bit of disappointment that we could not hold on to our leads. We were poor again in this match letting Watford attack us far to much but we did take some chances. We took the lead after Shola Ameobi was played through and finished off in the 43rd minute this came after a penalty miss by Watford. They equalised though in the 62nd minute from a set piece. We went and scored again though as substitute Adam Le Fondre scored in the 65th minute. It didn’t last long though as another set piece was put in by Watford. The final score was 2-2 which is pleasing but we need to put some wins together.

We won against Sheffield United which is a massive result for us all be it a close result. It was an even game in all but the match can take down to note that finishing was poor for both teams. The only goal which was the winning goal came in the 39th minute as Schaken took it down the wing crossed it in and Manucho controlled and scored. The defence played well in all to keep them out and this is a vital away win for us.

We managed to grab our 2nd win in a row against Peterborough United in what was an even game. It also saw us keep a clean sheet which is always good. The first goal came in the 40th minute after Manucho got brought down for a penalty. Shola Ameobi finished off with ease from the spot. We managed to grab a goal in first half  stoppage time as a Shaken corner was put in by Pim Balkestein. It was brilliant and that was the final score, it certainly seems as though the team is getting back to grips with the Championship.

As you can see we grabbed our third win in succession this time at home to Barnsley. We looked a much more solid unit and this was confirmed when Ferrie Bodde was sent off. The match started off well as in the 7th minute a corner was headed in by the returning centre back Dominic Kennedy. It was all looking good but Ferrie Bodde made a silly challenge and got a deserved red. We had to look at changing tactics and I made the formation narrow so no attacking wingers or wide midfielders everything attacking was central. They equalised on the 74th minute as they outnumbered us and finished inside the box. I changed the tactic again moving my midfielder into a striker position and it worked as we got hold of possession. A ball was put in and it was scrabbled into the box and there was Todd Kane to grab the late winner. This was a brilliant moment for us as we got a 2-1 victory. I hope we can keep this up going into our toughest match of the month against Ipswich.

The mini unbeaten run were were on came to an end as we lost to Ipswich Town. We played pretty well in the first half having a few chances that should really have been scored. It was Ipswich Town though that did deserve the lead as in the 50th minute the ball fell and they score. Then just as we were looking for a leveller they scored a 2nd in the 73rd minute. It was disappointing but I always knew this was the toughest match of the month. I do hope we can respond from this loss.

A great response to our loss against Ipswich Town as we came back home to win against Blackburn Rovers. We played excellent against Blackburn Rovers throughout getting an overall possession of 60% and having many more chances. In the first half we played much the better football but failed to turn chances into goals but in the second half we got the break through as Tommy Spurr scored an excellent free kick. It looked as though we would get the narrow win until Blackburn Rovers equalised from a free kick which was headed in. We though managed to grab the winner 3 minutes later when Shaken crossed for Roberts to head in. A brilliant victory to end the month.

Review Of Results

This month turned out to be such a brilliant one for us following a poor run of results we began to string results together. We certainly beat my prediction of 3 points grabbing 13 points out of 18 which is brilliant to say we are looking to avoid relegation. The loss against Ipswich made me disappointed and I worried we may begin to slip back into some bad form but know we put together and excellent performance against Blackburn Rovers. Overall a very good set of results.

Npower Championship League Table

Well the table is really beginning to shape up now and as you can see we are performing above all expectations taking 10th position. We have already beaten the target I set to get to by new year and barring an absolute catastrophic fall we should stay up comfortably. So far so good.

Player Ratings

This ratings table is in the amount of games for the club order. This is the first time I have put this up this season because I feel we that I need less concentration on this because I know ratings may not be brilliant. The ratings are not brilliant though we nobody getting above 7 but people are in the average part from 6.80 rating. So far there has been no real stand out player but Balkestein has certainly done well in defence and Alnwick has been pleasing this season.

That is it for this post, following a brilliant set of results this month can we continue it into the next month of December. My next post will be on the month of December.

Thanks for reading.

Tim.