AFC Wimbledon Season Preview: repeating the trick

Last season, AFC Wimbledon featured in the third tier for the first time in its current incarnation. A 15th place finish represents a successful debut, but more challenges are likely to come. The Football Lab speaks to supporter Matt Rickard to discuss life at Kingsmeadow.

Following an unlikely promotion, predictions of relegation, a bottom four budget and a desperately poor summer of recruitment, staying in league one was always going to be a stretch. Thankfully Neal Ardley squeezed the last drops out of his League Two battlers. Of course it helped that League One was the definition of average.

From the outside, it looks like you’ve got a League Two squad, but one that has worked that little bit harder. Can you maintain the same work ethic when the novelty of playing at this level has worn off?

Bar the odd gem, I think calling us a League Two squad is more than fair. But more of Jake Reeves later.

Relying on just work ethic will not be enough in 2018. We have already experienced worrying drop-offs in form last season.  This was a team that failed to score an away goal between October and February. It was also a team who ended the session falling to trouble any goalkeeper in its last six games as the battling qualities not so much ebbed away as fled to the hills in abject boredom. So I think it’s clear the novelty of League One has worn thin.

Pretty comprehensive surgery is needed if we are to stay up this time around.

Your 10 most-used players last season played key roles in the 15/16 promotion campaign. Are you a sturdier unit for having familiar figures and leaders like Barry Fuller?

There is no doubt we wouldn’t have achieved promotion without the likes of Fuller and Paul Robinson but there is a case for regeneration to happen quicker than it currently does.  Of course replacing leaders is easier said than done so its difficult to be too critical.

If we are still having this conversation in a year’s time though I may not be so sanguine.

Equally, does the above statistic suggest recruitment can improve? For how much longer can you rely on the old guard?

Reading my answers so far I realise this is all sounding a little negative so I think I should make it clear Ardley is doing a remarkable job. There is no way we should be in League One and his recruitment record is one the main reasons for our overachievement. However last summer wasn’t quite so successful as your stat about our ten most used players proves.

We have moved on four of last year’s signings this summer, including the troublesome Dominic Poleon and the troubling Tyrone Barnett, while the keeper Clarke failed to make it to Halloween, though made up for that fact with some truly horrifying performances.

James Shea conceded just 40 goals in 36 games last season and has been controversially dismissed. Can Sheffield United loanee George Long replace him?

Keepers are a long-standing problem with AFC Wimbledon and Shea was by no means the worst. Good reactions and vastly better off his line as the season progressed, he was a keeper with a good upside.  So ditching him for a loanee with no games last season seems on face value an unnecessary change. Time will tell.

Outside the top eight, only Charlton and Oldham had a better defensive record. Will new centre-back Deji Oshilaja need to earn his place over Darius Charles and Paul Robinson?

Delighted with the signing of Oshilaja who looked a class apart when on loan with us in 2015. Justin Edinburgh did his best to ruin him at Gillingham so for that we should thank him as he will walk into our first team.  He adds pace and dynamism to an slow, ageing eleven.  Adding speed and athleticism is a recurring theme of Ardley’s this summer and is exactly what we need if we are to surprise again.

The poaching instincts of new signing Cody McDonald are normally seen when he’s alongside a target man. With Player of the Year Tom Elliott leaving for Millwall, who wins the initial aerial balls?

Now that is a question.  We are planning to play a 433 or a three at the back this year and Ardley has said that he has looked at target men but, as he couldn’t find any as good as Elliot, he is not looking for a like for like replacement.

I imagine a fluid frontline with McDonald mainly used from the bench.

Kwesi Appiah did well in League Two with Cambridge in 14/15. Will he add some pace to your attack?

Appiah also had a great spell with us in League 2. He was another who was far too good for that level and seemingly out of our reach.  He backed that form up with a call-up for Ghana, scoring twice at the African Cup of Nations. A cruciate injury has slowed down his progress but, if recovered, his signing is a masterstroke.

Top scorer in League One possibility?

You got 34 goals from your forwards, including the now-departed Poleon, yet were the league’s eighth lowest scorers. Do midfielders need to get in the box more?

Definitely but we barely have a midfield at time of writing.  To be fair we barely had a midfield last year, with the exception of the supremely talented Jake Reeves.

Playing every minute of every game, Reeves left in the summer when Bradford triggered a disappointingly low release clause so now we have a very big hole to fill.  How we do this will be decisive.

About the midfield: 38-year-old Dannie Bulman has left after three good years while the younger Jake Reeves has gone to Bradford. Is strengthening needed?

Strengthening is essential.  We have Tom Soares who has yet to hit his stride in yellow and blue, Dean Parrett who is talented but needs to work harder and promising newcomer Alfie Egan. In our preferred 433 it is clear we need two new heads and even two may not be enough to cover the gaping hole left by Jake Reeves.

What are your thoughts ahead of the League One season as a whole? Any potential dark horses for you?

Despite some better resourced teams joining the fray this year, staying in L1 shouldn’t be beyond us. After all this is a league where Peterborough were comfortably mid table despite being woeful every time I saw them.

Bradford, Fleetwood and Bristol Rovers are well managed teams on the right trajectory.

Where will you finish?

League One looks stronger this season with the arrival of Doncaster, Portsmouth Blackburn and Wigan so I think we will do well to match 15th. I believe we are fine defensively and stronger up top so assuming we address the middle of the park I will settle for 16th.

The Football Lab’s Verdict

AFC Wimbledon have lost three of their better players from last season, including keeper Shea and their best technical player in Reeves. The other is target man Elliott, who they have not directly replaced. Oshilaja’s arrival aside, the Wombles have a weakened squad used to playing in the fourth tier, where they may reside next August. 21st