NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Mon Nov 04, 2024 2:04 pm  

following AFC's excellent 2-0 win at MK Dons in the FA Cup last night.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Fri Nov 08, 2024 11:48 am  

Very kind of you to ask DC. Still recovering! I love the FA Cup and we sat excitedly around the TV watching the draw. The one match-up I never want came up and all my enthusiasm washed away. Their are Wimbledon fans who will never visit MK, nor even watch a match against them in Wimbledon. I'm certainly not that, I just didn't fancy a miserable Sunday losing there, and I thought we would (or away record at MK isn't great). I won't win any fan of the year awards with that outlook.

My family were up for it and I feel a bit guilty to have effectively ignored them. Having watched the footage of the crowd, I think we would have enjoyed ourselves, the result obviously, but more that everybody (1,800) really were in it together which dulls any negative result.

We go to limited away matches anyway so it would have been against the norm. Away matches are fun but take a huge time out of the day, it's why selfishly I like the Broncos playing at Plough Lane; the convenience.

Much happier with our second round home draw to Dagenham and Redbridge in the "District Line Derby". Gives us a great opportunity to get through to Round 3 and the potential of a big match. But equally I love watching the non league clubs being successful in the FA Cup. If Dagenham come to PL and win, kudos to them and will hope they get a huge third round tie as a reward.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Fri Nov 08, 2024 1:40 pm  

Smithers99 wrote:

Very kind of you to ask DC. Still recovering! I love the FA Cup and we sat excitedly around the TV watching the draw. The one match-up I never want came up and all my enthusiasm washed away. Their are Wimbledon fans who will never visit MK, nor even watch a match against them in Wimbledon. I'm certainly not that, I just didn't fancy a miserable Sunday losing there, and I thought we would (or away record at MK isn't great). I won't win any fan of the year awards with that outlook.

My family were up for it and I feel a bit guilty to have effectively ignored them. Having watched the footage of the crowd, I think we would have enjoyed ourselves, the result obviously, but more that everybody (1,800) really were in it together which dulls any negative result.

We go to limited away matches anyway so it would have been against the norm. Away matches are fun but take a huge time out of the day, it's why selfishly I like the Broncos playing at Plough Lane; the convenience.

Much happier with our second round home draw to Dagenham and Redbridge in the "District Line Derby". Gives us a great opportunity to get through to Round 3 and the potential of a big match. But equally I love watching the non league clubs being successful in the FA Cup. If Dagenham come to PL and win, kudos to them and will hope they get a huge third round tie as a reward.

Fingers crossed then as 3rd Round FA Cup day probably is the best day of the football season, small clubs full of hope & big clubs full of fear. Great stuff. The RL Challenge Cup used to be a bit like that but since the "protect Superleague clubs at all costs" decision was made, it holds no interest for me. It is almost a pointless competition.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Fri Nov 08, 2024 3:41 pm  

I'm a Daggers fan and was quite looking forward to a trip to PL for the match but the evening kick off has put me off! Agree with the sentiments about the challenge cup

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Fri Nov 08, 2024 5:57 pm  

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

Fingers crossed then as 3rd Round FA Cup day probably is the best day of the football season, small clubs full of hope & big clubs full of fear. Great stuff. The RL Challenge Cup used to be a bit like that but since the "protect Superleague clubs at all costs" decision was made, it holds no interest for me. It is almost a pointless competition.

Used to love the FA cup. Lucky enough to go to a couple of finals. Wouldn’t give you a fag paper for it now. Really sad.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Fri Nov 08, 2024 6:00 pm  

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

Fingers crossed then as 3rd Round FA Cup day probably is the best day of the football season, small clubs full of hope & big clubs full of fear. Great stuff. The RL Challenge Cup used to be a bit like that but since the "protect Superleague clubs at all costs" decision was made, it holds no interest for me. It is almost a pointless competition.

I enjoy the CC final and usually book early but this year they are doing this odd thing of only offering up sxxt seats which when you consider the ground is a quarter empty is crazy. They need to get their act together unless, of course, there’s been a big surge of early doors Club Wembley purchasers in which case all is forgiven.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Fri Nov 08, 2024 6:08 pm  

Hockley. Well at least we can guarantee we will have a representative on this forum in the third round draw. It will be good to see Paul Kalambayi back at Plough Lane having spent all is career at AFC Wimbledon before joining Dagenham in the summer.

Growing up the Challenge Cup was a staple of the BBC Grandstand calendar, culminating in the Final which was always huge. I was quite excited at the prospect of the Challenge Cup when London Broncos moved to Plough Lane, but with the 12 Super League teams getting a bye to the last 16 it takes away the glamour for me.

Looks like next year it's partially solved with SL teams entering in the last 32. But the implication is all SL teams are playing away so can't meet each other. Which is wrong in my opinion.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Sun Dec 01, 2024 1:07 am  

And there you go. Elimination. Dagenham deserved the victory and Paul Kalambayi had a great game returning to Plough Lane after being at Wimbledon since a teenager before departing in the summer. He had a few choice words to the Wimbledon management after this victory. Good on him.

The amount of money the defeat could have cost the club is potentially huge.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Sun Dec 01, 2024 9:47 am  

Smithers99 wrote:

And there you go. Elimination. Dagenham deserved the victory and Paul Kalambayi had a great game returning to Plough Lane after being at Wimbledon since a teenager before departing in the summer. He had a few choice words to the Wimbledon management after this victory. Good on him.

The amount of money the defeat could have cost the club is potentially huge.

Always gutting to lose to on paper lesser/non league teams. Lord knows Fulham have done it often enough in the past. Thing that struck me was your goal credited at 45+8!! While 8 mins is not unusual for the 2nd half, you don't see it in the first, particularly when it didn't look like there were injuries requiring a substitute. But 7 of the 8 yellow cards dished out in the last 10 minutes sounds like an interesting end to the game.

Re: NBR Does Smithers have a hangover..... : Sun Dec 01, 2024 6:49 pm  

DC - I think our goal was offside anyway, but no VAR at this level.

The reason for the long delay was an injury to the referee who had to be replaced. Followed by a PA announcement "Do we have a qualified official in the crowd?". Apparently a 21 year old Essex local league referee volunteered. I think they needed to replace the 4th official (who became the ref) as the original referee wasn't initially fit enough to move to the 4th official role.

Five seconds after the 4th official took over as referee, he gave a dubious foul against Wimbledon in the centre circle to be met with the chant "You're not fit to referee" which was quite funny.

Second time this season a referee has had to withdraw in the first half; happened in our first match back against Carlisle after the pitch collapse. Not related! Was part of the pitch a referee won't even enter once most matches.

I also remember two or three years ago a Wimbledon volunteer becoming 4th official mid match.

Some may remember the famous incident in the seventies when an appeal went out to the crowd at Arsenal (against Liverpool) for a qualified official to run the touchline. Step forward Jimmy Hill who was in the crowd as a spectator.