Nick Roddis has decided to leave the club. Nick hasn't had the best of time since joining the club but his previous record shows he is a decent player and Decent players don't become bad players overnight. I wish Nick all the best and hope he gets back to playing football soon.
Over the Past two games it would appear that it has become the "fashion" to try and discredit the Man Of The Match Poll. I always list all players who were involved in the match no matter how short they played for. On Tuesday evening Joe Paris played for a maximum of 2 minutes in the match now he won the Man Of The Match Poll. If anybody he voted for him can honestly say he was Man Of The Match I will be surprised. Yesterday One particular play came in for a lot of stick following the match but are currently high up the standings for yesterdays vote. Not Only does it discredit the poll but it discredits supporters views.
If this continues I will have no hesitation in stopping the polls.This afternoon we used up one of our Get out of Jail cards, ok not as bad as against Horsham in terms of needing a result but as this was the game a hell of a lot of people didn't want to lose there were a lot of worried people about. We went behind on 5 minutes when a defensive muck up followed by a quick break away by the tooting strike force. We pulled the score level on 27 minutes when Martin Randall who fired home from 8 yards following a corner. 8 minutes before the end of the half Tooting took the lead again when the leagues leading scorer John Hastings fired home from the edge of the box.
On 60th minute the ref gave us a penalty but Robert Ursell's shot to the keepers left was pushed round for a corner and everyone began to think that it wasn't going to be our day but with just over 15 minutes left Martin Randall scored his second of the game and the points were shared, and our unbeaten record continues. The talking point of the game was that when 'Frankie' Howard got injured through a clash of heads on 14 minutes Chris Gell had to drop back from Midfield it was only once Steve Gibson came on and Micky Woolner dropped into the middle of defence with Gelly back in midfield that we seemed to get back into the game. This will be one of the games that we put down in the not brilliant performance but point gained draw, and I am sure that Tooting & Mitcham will end up in at least the play offs come the end of the season because they looks a very useful side. The poll for Man Of The Match is now open so please click below to cast your vote: -
Bromley and Leatherhead bowed out the FA Cup today but well done on getting this far. Thurrock were home to Spalding United and won 6-0 in the first Round they are home to Oldham Athletic, as people say what could of been.
In the league it looks like Walton & Hersham and Cray are bunching behind us after wins today. The full list of results can be found just a bit further down the page.Joe Paris 29 Votes 35.80%
Matt Everard Votes 13 16.05%
Steve Butler Votes 12 14.81%
Leon McDowall Votes 6 7.41%
Martin Randall Votes 5 6.17%
John-Barrie Bates Votes 5 6.17%
Anthony Howard Votes 4 4.94%
Steve Gibson Votes 3 3.70%
Gavin Bolger Votes 2 2.47%
Robert Ursell Vote 1 1.23%
Nick Roddis Vote 1 1.23%
This afternoon I will be doing updates from the Tooting & Mitcham game and these can be viewed by clicking either of the matchday links above or at the side menu bar.
Tomorrow sees us take on Tooting & Mitcham in what always used to be a tough game against Local our Rivals. Being a resident of Tooting myself it's the league game I have been looking forward to and although they have the current leading scorer in the league although he did manage 6 of his 12 league goals against Ashford in the 8-3 victory.
It is bound to be a big crowd so make sure you get to the ground early.Two teams are still in the final round of Qualifying games in the FA Cup so good luck on Saturday to Bromley and leatherhead and with almost a full league programme it looks like some good matches could be on the cards. The full list is below: -
FA CupOn Thursday evening the Under 18's under the guidance of Nicky English and Keith Ward chalked up the eight win of the season with a 8-2 victory at home to Ashford Town. Ashford took the lead after a harsh Penalty but by Half time AFC Wimbledon were 6-1 up. Ashford scored early in the second half but we restored our dominance with 2 more goals to make the Final score 8-2. Bradley Drake scored another hat-trick and now has 15 for the season.
We are now 8 points clear of 2nd Place leatherhead who have a game in hand and 9 points clear of Corinthian Casuals who have 2 games in hand.The Man Of The Match Poll for tonight's game is now open and you can vote by clicking below: -
Although the early stages of these competitions are never the most exciting we came through a game against Flackwell Heath with a 2-0 victory thanks to a 4-th Minute Penalty from Martin Randall and an 88 minute header from Steve Butler after a corner. I am sure Flackwell are looking forward to there FA Cup Match at the weekend. The full list of results involving Division one teams is a bit further down the page and once the draw for the next round is know I will put details up. It was nice to see Joe Paris come on for the last couple of minutes and get involved and to think he isn't 18 until March next year.
The result from Saturday's Man Of The Match poll is as follows: -
Ryan Gray 18 Votes 26.09%The Sponsors slogan for the League Cup is "Don't Miss It" but if you cant make it to the game tonight just a reminder that both Radio Wdon will be in operation and I will also be doing the text updates they can be viewed by clicking here. The Updates should start from around 19:15 or so once the team news is known. If you cant make it I hope it helps your enjoyment of the evening.
With a match tonight the Man Of The Match Vote from Saturday's game will close around kick off so if you haven't voted yet and wish to please click below and record your view, every vote counts as it will go towards the Player of the Month and Player Of The Year Totals.
Tomorrow the Ryman League, League Cup gets under way with teams from Divisions 1 and 2 involved the list of games involving Division 1 teams are as follows: -
AFC Wimbledon 2-0 Flackwell HeathAfter Arsenal's 2-0 defeat on Sunday at Old Trafford it would appear we are clear by a long way on the longest unbeaten League record in Senior Football.
Arsenal Reached 49
Celtic Reached 62
We are on 73 games.
On Sunday the ladies for the the second week running had a 4-0 victory and in the first half were very impressive. After a slow start to the season the ladies seem to be back playing as well as we know they can. If they continue the current form they could well be pushing for that important 2nd place and a play-off game against the 2nd place team in the Northern Division.
If your planning to watch this afternoon's Live premiership game in a Pub why not make the venue the Bar at Kingsmeadow. The game is Manchester United Vs Arsenal and starts at 16:05 and it's always a pleasant relaxed atmosphere in the bar, if you fancy making it down earlier in the afternoon the Ladies are playing Enfield Town in a 14:00 kick off, so why not come down and cheer them on as well.
The Man Of The Match vote from today's game against The Met Police is now open please click below to vote: -
A lot of goals about today with 40 being scored across 10 games, the Bashley Vs Hastings Game was called off at half time due to the pitch being waterlogged. Whilst we managed to get a point out of the Met Police game, thanks to a Ryan Gray Goal, even though we had the vast majority of the chances teams around us also dropped points. The comeback of the day seems to have been at Fleet where Dorking were 3-1 up with 82 minutes played but thanks to goals in the 83rd, 87th and 90th minutes Fleet went home with all the points.
Other scores of note seem to be Draw specialist Cray Wanderers who ended a run of 6 home draws with a 5-2 victory in the Hayes Lane Derby against Bromley. Horsham winning 5-0 against Whyteleafe and it is believed Jamie Taylor scored twice, and Dulwich who had a 3-3 draw at Molesey.This afternoon we are involved in a 1st Vs 2nd clash when we visit Imber Court the home of The Met Police. The text updates will be in operation from around 14:30 once I have the team news and can be viewed by clicking here.
Elsewhere in the league the two big games of interest will be the clash between Horsham and Leatherhead and the 4th Vs 5th game between Bashley and Hastings United. A full results service will be provided on my return tonight.The result from last weekends Man Of The Match Poll for the game against Thurrock is as follows: -
Steve Gibson 36 Votes 32.73%This saturday will see a rare event as a full league fixture programme is in operation with various rounds of the cup having taken place over the past few weeks this will be the first full programme since the end of September and may not see a full league programme again before the 20th November!! In fact in the past 30 days Croydon, Walton & Hersham and Met Police have played 5 League Games whilst ourselves, Horsham and Bromley have only played 2 League games. The full league programme is as follows: -
Ashford Town 0-1 Walton & HershamOver the past two days two players have moved on from the club Gareth Graham has Joined whyteleafe on what could be just a loan deal whilst he gets back to full match fitness and involved in matches that will be of a more competitive nature than reserve team football, Meanwhile Jamie Taylor has moved to Horsham as we were unable to guarantee him starting in the first team where apparently Horsham could. In tomorrow's fixture list Whyteleafe visit Horsham and therefore it will be a chance for Jamie, Gareth as well as Lewis Taylor, Danny Oakins and Lee Sidwell all to meet up. Wish both Jamie and Gareth all the best and it been wonderful them playing for us.
This Saturday we take on The Met Police in a League game and after the FA Trophy game from a couple of weeks ago The Met Police have made a number of changes to the squad with most notably Danny Bolt has left to join Croydon Athletic.
If you are traveling to the game it is played at the Met Police Sports and Social Club ground which apparently is a nice ground. The nearest train station is Thames Ditton and trains Depart Wimbledon at 10 and 40 minutes past the hour the Journey takes 15 minutes and then it's about a mile from the station walk down Embercourt Road over the roundabout and then continue along Embercourt Road. A Map of the area can be found by clicking here.If you are a Share Holder of any public quoted Company you will be aware that Companies issue Annual Reports and Accounts to all Share Holders the Majority of these go straight in the Bin but this morning I spent a fair amount of time reading the AFC Wimbledon PLC document that arrived this morning which makes interesting reading. So if you are a Share Holder you should receive the document if not today over the next day or so.
Only one FA Cup Replay tonight but well done to Bromley who beat Conference South team Sutton United 2-1 and move into the next round and will play Cambridge City.
The vote from the Weekend's Man Of The Match Poll so if you haven't voted yet and wish to please do by clicking below: -
With a number of games called off at the weekend a few have managed to be re-arranged for tonight and therefore the teams playing are as follows: -
Cray Wanderers 3-3 DorkingIf you fancy a bit of fun Geoff Seel has designed a wonderful system where you can decided if a team will end the season on more or less points than offered. If you think it will be higher than the quoted points you buy if lower you sell. You can trade on each team once in each 24 hour period its all a bit of fun and supporters of a number of Ryman teams are playing for more information and to join in click here.
Both the Reserves and the Ladies had good results over the weekend The Reserves won 5-0 at Chipstead and the Ladies won 4-0 at Watford. In the Reserve team was Matt Everard who played the full 90 minutes and a number of people have questioned why Matt wasn't involved in the first team in some way this weekend. I managed to talk to Matt earlier last week and when asked if he would play for the 1st team at the weekend he responded "no I need Match practice and will therefore be in the reserves." Matt will be back in the first team soon but he knows the importance of getting games played.
The Good news is that Jay Conroy is OK after his Head Injury at the weekend, the strange thing was that no one I have spoken to saw what happened. Dave has given his views on the game over on the Official Site and it makes very interesting reading.
This morning the 4th Qualifying round draw of the FA Cup was made and the following games of note came out: -
Thurrock Vs Spalding UnitedI have added a new question based on our performance in the 4 FA Cup matches we have played this season. The question is "How Would You Rate Our FA Cup Performance" and the options are Very Good, Good, As Expected, Disappointing or Very Disappointing to vote please click here.
Flackwell Heath are the team we play in the Bryco cup which is the Ryman Leagues version of the League Cup. Flackwell Heath are in the Division 2 and currently sit in 7th place. Yesterday they were involved in FA Cup action and have progressed to the next round with a 1-0 victory at Harrow Borough so it looks like it could be a very good game. As the game is in School Half Term week the club have announced that any Under 16's will be admitted Free Of Charge to the game so lets try and get a decent number of youngsters to the ground so that they may come back in the future.
It was always going to be a difficult game against a team a full 2 divisions above us and so it proved. In heavy rain 3,000 people mainly packed under the covered parts of Kingsmeadow and on around 2 minutes it could of been different as AFC Wimbledon had the ball in the back of the net but this was disallowed for a foul. After 25 minutes play a big change needed to be made as Jay Conroy was taken off the pitch on a stretcher and was later taken to Hospital with suspected concussion. With over 60 minutes of the game left Dave Anderson decided hat it was too long to Risk the returning steve Butler and therefore put on Nick Roddis. Within a couple of minutes Thurrock had a Corner the ball was played in and headed past Naisbitt, perhaps if Jay had been on the pitch but as the saying say, we will never know.
It was always going to be difficult once we went one down and shortly after the break we were 2-0 down when the fast Thurrock attackers managed to power past our defence and fire past Danny.In the first half I thought we played very well but a mixture of a very good side and the difficult conditions couldn't see us back in the game anyway.The Man Of The Match vote is now open please click below to vote: -As expected in the FA Cup it was a difficult day but along with our 2-0 defeat Dulwich Hamlet suffered a 9-0 defeat at Hornchurch. Only two Ryman 1 clubs are still involved in the FA Cup with Bromley facing a replay after a 2-2 draw at Sutton and Leatherhead's 2-1 victory at home to Maidenhead, so well done to both of them.
In the league the main result was Cray's 2-1 victory at Met Police All today's results are below.Big game today and it's going to be a busy one as I am sure you are aware if you are going to the ground today you will be able to have your picture taken with the FA Cup from 12:30 to 14:30. Rob Ursell is also being presented with his player of the round award for the Dunstable game and then the mater of our game against Thurrock gets under way. Radio Wdon will be in action as well as my text updates which can be viewed by clicking here. These should start around 14:30 once I have the team news. So if you cant make the game I hope you enjoy the service.
A number of teams are still in the FA Cup today from Ryman 1 so good luck to them all, the two hardest games look like ours and Dulwich Hamlet's game against Hornchurch. The full list of games are as follows: -
AFC Wimbledon 0-2 ThurrockThe result from last weekends man of the match poll is as follows: -
Chris Gell 42 Votes 37.50%Whilst a number of teams are involved in FA Cup action on Saturday a number of league games are being played against teams who went out at earlier rounds, the games are as follows: -
Ashford Town 2-0 Newport IoWFollowing on from Rob's award earlier in the week we have won three more awards for August and September we were awarded, Team of the Month, Manager of the Month and Safe Hands which is an award for the team that concedes the least goals so well done to everyone at the club.
A couple of announcements have been made on the official site today and the good news is that "The FA Cup" will be at the ground and you can have your picture taken with it. Before kick off both teams will also have a photo with it and then Rob Ursell will be presented with his player of the Round award for the Dunstable game.
Don't forget that Both bars now have big screens and therefore the SKY Match will be on before the match and the back bar is a non-smoking one.Just a reminder that Season Tickets are not valid for Saturday's game and although we have been advance selling Tickets for the game you shouldn't have a problem in getting into the ground. Around 200 Seat tickets were still available as at Wednesday night so if you do wish to get a seat please arrive early so that you can get a seat. Terrace Tickets wont be a problem but this is a game where we need everyone to get behind the boys and so if you can bring anyone along who is thinking about it please do so we can give the team as much support as possible.
Final reminder that the Man Of The Match Poll from last weekends game against the Met Police is open so if you haven't voted and wish to please do so by clicking below: -
After a week of Frantic voting Rob Ursell has been declared the winner of the Player of the Round poll on the FA Site and therefore id Guaranteed 2 VIP tickets for the Final at the end of the season in Cardiff. Rob appeared on "weird and wonderful world.com" earlier in the day and posted the following message. "Just got to thank everyone for voting for me, and getting other people to vote for me. Great award to win. Thank you all!" A big congratulations to Rob and we all know how well deserved this award is and lets hope that we can have another brilliant team performance on Saturday when we play Thurrock.
The Man Of The Match vote for today's game against the Met Police is now open please click below to vote: -
On Tuesday night tickets for Saturday's FA Cup game are being sold in the bar between 7pm and 9pm I understand that also due to the shorter than usual opening hours of the shop today the Shop will also be open during these hours so why not come down to the ground get tickets in advance for what already looks like it will be a very big attendance and also buy some merchandise.
Normally when trainees graduate from Hendon Training camp they join the Met Police but following today's 2-0 victory over Met Police we now face a trip to Face Hendon Football club in the 1st Round of the FA Trophy. It's safe to say that both teams will no each other in advance of the game.
Today's game was far from a classic the Early kick off time, International Games On the television and FA Cup Games both last week and next week seem to have subdued the crowd and the players seemed a bit off there game today. It was a very tight game but our two goals came first on 36 Minutes when after a bad challenge by one of the Met Police players saw us keep the ball and win a corner, before the corner could be taken the ref booked the Met Player the Corner was taken by Gray and as Richard Butler came in at the near post the Goalkeeper managed to force the ball over the line for a nice own goal. At the time the press box area wasn't sure who scored the goal but having seen video footage of the goal from Charles Kemp, seemed to confirm that it was the keepers intervention that forced the ball over the line. The Referee was also asked at Half Time and he said it was the keeper so that's what it goes down as. The second goal came with the last touch of the game when a cross from the Left was headed in By Chris Gell for his first goal in the colours of AFC Wimbledon. So not a brilliant performance but progression in the Cup and perhaps it was good to get an under par performance out of our system before Next weeks FA Cup game against Thurrock.With a 1pm kick off everything starts that bit earlier today so expect Team next from around 12:15 and Radio Wdon from about 12:00. I will be doing updates and you can watch them by clicking the link above or at the side. If you cant make the game I hope this helps.
The other trophy games involving Ryman 1 clubs are as follows: -
Arlesey Town (0)2-1(0) Croydon AthleticNo real surprise on Man Of The Match for last week but the full result is as follows: -
Robert Ursell 62 Votes 63.92%Just a reminder that Saturday is a 13:00 kick off and also if you wish to apply for your own seat for the Thurrock FA Cup game on Saturday 16th October you need to drop in Voucher C with a cheque and S.A.E. This can be done both before the Game and also after the game, and with big screens in both bars lots of people should be able to stay and watch the International games.
On Thursday night the Under 18's had a storming Cup victory over Worthing FC with a 5-1 score line the goals were Bradley Drake with another 2 Niall Connery, Ryan O'Sullivan and Joe Edwards. There appears to be a bit of confusions on the league set up for Under 18 but although there are 4 leagues North, East, South and West they are all at the same level part of the reason is that a player plays for a maximum of 2 years and therefore it could be a case that one year you could have a team with mostly second years and they do well and the next year if you have mainly first years you could go straight back down so it would just be a series of yo-yo teams. The winners of each Division have an end of season Champions League to find the best team in the Southern Youth League.
First of all sorry for the lack of updates this week, with two cup games coming up things have been busy in the office and I also had a Training ground trip and an Under 18's match has taken up most of the week. I had planned on a scouting mission on Thurrock at St Albans but with a combination of trains delays and an early start tomorrow I decided to give it a miss but apparently at Half time Thurrock are 2-0 up.
After each round of the FA Cup a panel of Esteemed people gather to discuss players who have impressed in the weekends games and this weekend our own Robert Ursell has been nominated for the award. The voting lasts until 9:00am On Monday 12th October.
"The player who secures the most votes will be crowned FA Cup ÎPlayer of the Roundâ and will win £1000 worth of UMBRO football kit and equipment for a local school, club or organisation of his choice. He will also receive an engraved silver salver and an UMBRO kit player package. The successful player will also be the first player to join The Team of The FA Cup, guaranteeing VIP attendance at The FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday 21 May 2005 and a chance-of-a-lifetime introduction to the crowd, pitch side at half time." The FA Site also has some more details about the award and you can read it here. This is clearly a very special award and a credit to Rob and the rest of the team to get the recognition we have. To vote you need to go to the "FA Site" Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the Vote, Robert is listed at the bottom of the list of 5 players click the button next to it and then hit Vote. Although at this stage it looks like Robert is well in the lead be aware that the previous round winner was watched in a game by around 250 but by the end of the week had over 18,000 votes as local media backing for him so make sure that everyone you know who has internet access make sure they vote.The ticket information for the Thurrock has been announced on the official site and if you wish to reserve your season ticket seat you will need to drop in a postal requests on Saturday so make sure you read it for what to do, in what should be a very good game.
If you have applied for Met Police Tickets they are being processed at the Moment.The FA Cup draw this morning gave us an interesting tie as we were listening in to it various names in regional basis were being pulled out and when it came to the Southern Region as the home team was pulled out a series of "no Don't want them or THat will do" were made but then when we were pulled out as the Home Team an air of don't mind now seemed to go round the room and then Thurrock were announced. On the whole with the game being at home we have a chance but Thurrock will be a Tough team as they currently sit 6th in the Conference South.
They also won 3-0 on Saturday Away and only game they play between now and our cup game is on Friday night away at St Albans and I am planning to go along and have a look at them.At around 11:00 the draw will be made for the 3rd Qualifying round of the FA Cup with the games to be played on the weekend of the 16th October. As soon as the team we will play is announced it will be on the official site and I will have details on them tonight when I get home.
To reach the 1st Round Proper when Football League teams come in teams need to win both 3rd and 4th Qualifying round games. No additional level teams come in at the this stage although at the 4th Qualifying round stage Conference Sides join in although Conference North and South have been in since the last round.I have added up all the votes for the matches played in each individual Month of games and here are the top three players for each month.
August - 1st Robert Ursell 91 Votes, 2nd Jamie Taylor 83 Votes, 2nd Richard Butler 83 Votes
September - 1st Richard Butler 100 Votes, 2nd Antony Howard 85 Votes, 3rd Joe Sheerin 55 Votes
As I am sure you are aware the website run by "A Yorkshire Womble" has a goal of the game poll after each week and at the end of each month a poll is run for the Goal of the Month. The poll for September is now open and you can vote by clicking here, if you wish to see a video for the 6 candidates I have produced a 2 minute 45 seconds Video of them in a Match Of The Day Type Style. The file size is 6mb and you can download it by clicking here the format is Windows Media Player.
The talk on the way home as expected after a hat-trick was about Rob Ursell, but once again people were talking about another professional display in a game that most people in advance including the management team expected to be very tight and difficult.
Although Robert Ursell took the goal glory Steve Gibson put in another brilliant display and almost scored a brilliant goal himself. He broke from the half way line and managed to run through about 4 defenders but his shot was saved by the keeper when it went straight at him. Gibo made up for this in the minute before half time when his cross was headed home from about 2 yards by Robert Ursell.After Ursell had scored his first with a powerful shot that although the keeper got a hand too but couldn't keep out and then his second was a header he created another bit of magic for his third when he hit the ball from the edge of the box in a looping action and it flew into the top of the net right by the post the keeper had no chance. The players were rightly in high spirits both after the game and i understand on the journey home.After yesterday's FA Cup games the following Ryman 1 teams have made it through to the 3rd Qualifying Round with us - Bromley, Hastings, Horsham, Dulwich Hamlet, Leatherhead & Tooting & Mitcham who are in a replay.
The best result of these teams would be Hastings who won 3-1 at Carshalton Athletic. The draw is Monday morning around 11:00.Sorry for the delay but the result of the Corinthian Casuals Man Of The Match Vote was as follows: -
Anthony Howard 19 Votes 32.20%Whilst we were progressing into Monday Lunchtimes draw some league games were taking place and the big news of the day was that the Met Police got beat 2-1 at Corinthian Casuals. This means the Met are 6 points behind us but have played a game more. The league tables have been updated.
This afternoon we eased through to the next stage of the FA Cup with a 3-0 victory at Dunstable with all 3 goals from Robert Ursell. I will do a report on Sunday but for now the Man Of The Match poll is open, so please click below to vote: -
Today is the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and we are off to Dunstable. I will be providing updates as always and you can view them by the link above or at the side. They should start from around 2:15 once I get the team news.
Although about half the teams in the league are involved in FA Cup Action tomorrow 5 league games are being played and they are as follows: -
Banstead Athletic 1-2 Fleet Town Corinthian-Casuals 2-1 Metropolitan Police Croydon 2-1 Ashford Town Croydon Athletic 3-3 Whyteleafe Walton & Hersham 2-3 Bashley
