Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4814
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE MELTDOWN – CRAWLEY TOWNFirst things first then……Congratulations again to the skipper on his achievement and a guard of honour as he made his way onto the pitch. Knowing Lewie how we do, doubtless, he hated it, and probably was relieved when all the adulation ceased and he could get on with business as usual.
Either concerned by fatigue or niggling injuries Willaimson shuffled the pack and left many of us wondering how this lineup was going to work. Well the long and the short of it was….it didn’t, but I suppose with another 3 points in the account and a clean sheet you could argue it did, but that was all down to one man as MacGilvray turned out to be the difference between the two sides, he was the immovable object who refused to be breached and should have been rewarded with the MOTM, but somehow the sponsors were watching a different game.
As for the game….thankfully we started well as with hardly 2 minutes in and some still making their way to their seats, Max Dean made the pass of the season to set Tomlinson on his way down the left, he took a touch and despite being clattered fired the ball low past the keepers right hand and into the bottom corner…the perfect start and something to defend and putting Crawley at a disadvantage from the off, meaning they couldn’t ease themselves into the game, but as it happened it seemed to make life more difficult for us.
As we know, this is the season of giving, and we tried really hard to give Crawley a late Christmas present with several awful passes and getting outmuscled all over the pitch, and surprisingly one of the worst offenders was the ever dependable Payne who just recently has been the driving force and heartbeat of the team.
It wasn’t just Payne though as several Dons players struggled to cope with the intensity of the Crawley press and it seemed only a matter of time before Crawley scored, but thanks to Mac who made several excellent saves, somehow or other we kept them at bay, but you also have to say some of their shooting was thankfully a bit off target, and we were very fortunate that every time Mac saved the ball it always fell kindly for us and it was hooked away to safety.
At the break many I spoke to wondered how we had gone in 1-0 up as we could easily be losing, in fact being 3-1 down wouldn’t have been out of place.
Whilst many of our players were struggling to find their “A” game, one person in particular stuck out for me, Leko. Now I know he was being asked to play an unfamiliar role, and to some degree similar to that in the Colchester game, but this was appalling, and surely bad enough to warrant a taxi ride out of SMK to wherever he wants to go.
I was a huge fan of Leko when he first came in, his tricky runs and his ability to create something from nothing and the ability to beat a man, sometimes several times, gave us a different dimension, but IMHO he isn’t on the same journey most of the other players are on, and he needs to go for ours and his benefit.
Most players have thrived under the leadership and guidance of Williamson, but Leko is a shadow of the player he was, and I can see no point in hanging onto him after January. He looks down on confidence, unhappy possibly because he cannot secure a regular start and not always starting in a role he is comfortable with, but the biggest issue with me is he looks disinterested.
On several occasions I observed him just jogging back seemingly without a care in the world and the guy he was supposed to be keeping an eye on having his easiest game of the season, and I was amazed he was kept on the field of play as long as he was, and judging by the cheer when he was eventually subbed off many more thought the same.
Whilst I’m happy to let Leko go, we 100% must recall Kemp, I know some of you don’t like that notion, but to leave a player on loan with another LG 1 club after scoring 15 goals and an added bonus of 8 assists is utter bloody madness, if we were signing a new player with that pedigree, social media would go mad with calls for “announce promotion”. I don’t know what happened to make him want a loan out, but that should be water under the bridge and a clean sheet given, Kemp returning could be the missing jigsaw piece in the midfield/No 10 role….. in my mind, if we don’t recall him, it’s a huge mistake, if nothing else it will piss Swindon fans off, and I’m all for that.
The second half largely followed the pattern of the first, Crawley never let up pressing and forcing errors, and we were happy to help them with sloppy play and only really getting out of defence on occasions when we did manage to clear our lines and find the likes of an isolated Max Dean.
I have to say, I was at Crawley the night we lost 2-1, and I felt then as I do now they are one of the best organised and hard working teams in LG 1. They have a miniscule budget, and plucked several players from non-league, but what they lack in skill and talent has been outweighed with sheer bloody hard work and commitment and has defied the relegation label many pinned on them pre-season. OK they are not world beaters, but to me they are performing way above what many expected from them, and you have to say they have given us two really hard games this season.
Thankfully late in the second half we sewed it up to prevent a nervous last ten minutes or so, we won the ball back in midfield with two Crawley players dumped on their backsides. The ball came out to Norman on the right, he passed it inside to Gilbey who managed to get it out from under his feet and fire low in off the post, and in doing so reduced half the Crawley team to its knees who just couldn’t believe what was going on.
What happened next I don’t really know as the ref was subjected to an audience of Crawley players protesting, possibly about potential fouls, but I’ve watched it back and there didn’t look to be anything untoward, just muscled off the ball and the ref was unmoved, the same as he had been all night with similar incidents.
If they were upset as they had a man down in the middle of the park and thought the ref should stop it, then they should have kicked it out when they had a chance to, not continue to play it out and then cry when a second player went down.
As the dust settled it looked like the ref booked a couple of players during the protests, but not according to the BBC and someone must have said something on their bench as the ref marched over to them and gave them another yellow for good measure.
Shortly after the restart Crawley had a long throw opportunity to get the ball into the box, Laurence “Slab Head” Maguire jogged into the area past the ref and must have said something on his way, as the ref quickly followed him and gave him a second yellow for his troubles, and he reluctantly left the pitch to the jeers of “Cheerio” from all around the ground.
I left shortly after, so if anything happened like a disputed goal you better discuss that amongst yourselves as I never saw it.
So, mission accomplished, leg 3 of the festive quartet done and dusted, and another three points and stretching the unbeaten run to what….9 games I think. Not totally convincing, but we found a way to get the job done, with massive thanks to Mac, who it has to be said has come under the “Meltdown” spotlight recently, but as ever I’m happy to be wrong, last night he was the difference between the two teams.
One final point on the game, I’m not a massive fan, but Ellis Harrison coming on for Grant did help the cause and get a bit of stability back in the middle. Unlike Leko he looks like he might have come through a difficult period a bit better and put himself about a bit and held the ball up well, hopefully he continues the upward trend that might just secure another few months onto his Dons career.
Oh, go on then…one more final point…if I were a Crawley fan. I would be severely pissed off, lets be honest, they deserved something out of the game, but that’s football, and the reason we love it and hate it in equal measures.
New Years Day then we are off to the Eco-Power Stadium in Doncaster to hopefully do the unthinkable and claim maximum points over the Chrimbo/New Year period but let’s not forget Doncaster have been a thorn in our side before.
After that game a welcome break `for a week to give their legs and our wallets a breather, and by then we might just have a few comings and goings to help the cause.
Happy New Year, and Choooo, Chooooo suckers.  WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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