Welcome to the Conference

So without a doubt we are a conference team now, and on that showing we have already learnt a real lot.

Terry said at the meet the manager night that he would challenge anyone to name the starting line up that he would pick for the first game of the season and seeing it today not many people Would of matched it.

From early in the afternoon their was a special atmosphere building and with the weather being nice for us it meant people could take advantage of catching up with people who they haven’t seen at football for a few months.

When the teams came out they were greeted by a near capacity Kingsmeadow with the Luton fans packed into the Kingston road end. The Tempest end was well decorated by the fleydon collection of flags as well as other flags so was a great site, before the game both teams observed a minutes applause in memory of Bobby Robson and a number of AFC Wimbledon fans who has died during the close season.

The game started and fairly early on although not many clear cut chances Luton were having a lot of pressure and it was looking like it was a case of a team going for promotion against a very young team.

Luton took the lead when they were awarded a 14 minute penalty after Paul Lorraine was ruled to have fouled the striker, possibly for holding and the penalty was converted.

At Half time the score was AFC Wimbledon 0 Luton Town 1 but the general opinion was that as their was only 1 goal in it we still had a chance and it was importnat that we continued to battle away.

At half time we did a blanker collection for the cancer charity that John Hartson is being trated for, thanks to everybody who threw money into the blanket and I’m pleased to say that they vast majority went straight in and dindn’t hit any of the people also carrying it.

The second half started and where we had been penned back for a lot of the play we seemed to be pushing forward especially down the right hand side, the only problem seemed to be that Danny Kedwell was being pulled out wide and so on a few occasions he was crossing the ball into a position where he should of been standing to convert it.

At the other end of the pitch the defence was doing well in containg Luton and Paul Lorraine made a couple of clearances to keep the score at 1-0 to Luton. The Luton fans thought they had the victory sown up and started singing 0-1 in your cup final but without looking it up it was 2-1 in a Semi Final, some people have short memories!

Terry Brown made a couple of big substitutions replacing Duncan, Hatton & Godfrey for Wellard, Main & Moore and this was giving us more of an attacking look, maybe Main & Kedwell knowing how each other play helped but with Moore pushing forward we began to look like we could get back in the game, then with about 10 minutes left Main broke into the box on the right hand side and just as he was about to shoot a defender challenged him missing the ball and took main down, the ref pointed straight to the spot and showed the Luton defender a Red Card.

With a new season and new players its always interesting when you get the first penalty as to who will step up to take it do we stick with last years players or go for one of the new players. Well Jon Main stepped up and fired it to the keepers left and into the back of the net. Three quarters of the ground erupteed the Luton sectipn stood their in utter dissapointment with the reality that as well as being level now they had to face the remainder of the game with 10 men.

Straight away people suggested that a draw would be a good rrsult and that we should shut up shop and take the point. But on the pitch this was far from the case and the team could see that we could still claim all 3 points a few chances fell but nothing clear cut and so the game finished 1-1 and a nice way to get our season off and running.

So looking at the game we were playing the team that the vast majority of supporters expect to see win the league by a large margin we are a team who have either just got promoted or very young players in the first half it clearly looked like only oen side could win this match but definatley in the second half we got a lot more confident did Terry Brown install belief in the players or did we see a flaw in Luton’s system.

It will be interesting to see the stats from the game as it appeared that their were very few clear cut chances on goal so a draw was a fair result, as Terry has been saying for  a number of weeks our season isint going to be decided on this one game alone but it gives us an idea of what we may be up against this season.

But tonight we sit 9th in the league and it feels very nice being there.

The IMBD Blog Selected Team

Ok we had the Starting Line up sorted but let’s just clarify the sub positions for this afternoons game against Luton Town.

The Starting Line up with Squad Number is as follows

1. GK – James Pullen (1)
2. RB – Jay Conroy (2)
3. LB – Chris Hussey (3)
4. CB1 – Paul Lorraine (22)
5. CB2 – Ben Judge (6)
6. MD1 – Lewis Taylor (8)
7. MD2 – Derek Duncan (14)
8. MD3 – Elliott Godfrey (11)
9. MD4 – Steven Gregory (?)
10. ST1 – Danny Kedwell (10)
11. ST2 – Jon Main (9)

We originally went for a 4-4-2 formation and based on comments so far this week it appears that Jame Pullen, Chris Hussey & Derek Duncan will be starting th game.

With us selecting 1 Defender 1 Midfielder and 1 Striker on the bench we had two other positions available and you selected 1 Goal keeper and an extra midfielder so our subs are as follows: -

1. GK Sebb Brown The original poll said Jack Turner but it appears it will be Sebb
2. DF Luke Garrard (12)
3. MD Sam Hatton (7)
4. MD Ricky Wellard (17)
5. ST Luke Moore (?)

The one player of note from the line up is Brett Johnson and some people even think that he will start in defence. I wonder how well we will do.

The current predicted Starting Line Up

We have now had votes on all the positions for the teams that we think Terry & Stuart will pick for the first game of the season, and if you listened to the recording of last nights meet the manager session you will know Terry issued a challenge to anybody that manages to predict the correct starting line up.

I’m going to leave the current votes open for the next few days in case people fancy changing selection.

The starting XI we have picked is as follows

• GK – James Pullen
• RB – Jay Conroy
• LB – Chris Hussey
• CB1 – Paul Lorraine
• CB2 – Ben Judge
• MD1 – Lewis Taylor
• MD2 – Derek Duncan
• MD3 – Elliott Godfrey
• MD4 – Steven Gregory
• ST1 – Danny Kedwell
• ST2 – Jon Main

The midfield was the hardest to sort out as in the 1st three slots Lewis Taylor was selected so what I did was take the highest person after anybody who previously had been selected had been removed, but looking at the four polls combined these four also got the highest votes.

Looking at a midfield formation we could have Lewis on the right of the four Duncan on the left with Gregory & Godfrey in the middle.

So are you pleased with the starting XI you have selected?  Would be interested to see peoples comments on it, are you suprised that anybody has been left out for example Luke Moore, Sam Hatton and is this formation flexible enough to go to a 4-3-3 formation.

Over the weekend we will look at the subs bench. taking the players who havent been selected so far.

Thanks for your input so far.

Select your Defenders

So far we have our goalkeeper so lets look at our defenders I have split this into 3 sections

• Right Backs
• Left Backs
• Centre Backs

Right Backs – At right back we have two obvious choices and both were with us last season, although for different parts of it.

Luke Garrard – Luke has been a long serving member of the team and last season suffered a nasty injury that meant he missed about half of it he made a welcome return in the Isle of Man

Jay Conroy – Jay originally was with us a few years ago but stepped in last season when Luke got injured. Will his conference National experience make the difference at the right back position?

Once you have selected your right back click vote and then Lets look at the Left Back Options.

Left Back – We have 3 real options at Left back

Chris Hussey – Last years young player of the year and after last year battling out with Mickey Haswell for the left back position it looks like he has some stiff competition again this year

Derek Duncan – One of the new players for this season who has joined from Ebbsfleet

James Snelling – One of our youngsters but may have involvement during the season.

Centre Backs

In our 4-4-2 formation we obviously need 2 centre backs so this is where the first tough decision will come in and obviously if you dont select someone as a centre back they maybe able to play in another position but this will be interesting.

The choices are

• Ben Judge – Last Years Player of the year
• Alan Inns – A big part of last years championship team
• Paul Lorraine – A welcome return was player of the year at Woking last year
• Brett Johnson - Joined us from Brentford on trial at the moment

As we need to make two selections we have two different polls so please make your selection on the first and then press vote followed by a different selection on the second poll.

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Right you think that was tough? well next up will be Midfield now that will create problems.