YOU NEVER KNOW
JOHN LYONS TAKES A LOOK AT THE UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF FOOTBALL AND THE REASONS BEHIND IT
The unpredictable game
FOOTBALL is a funny old game, isn’t it? Just four days before AFC Wimbledon humbled West Ham in the FA Cup, I saw them hammered 3-0 by Fleetwood Town in League One action.
The Dons were dire that night and you just couldn’t imagine them giving the Hammers any Cup nightmares. Perhaps that was all part of a cunning masterplan – the Premier League team’s scout would have gone home and told boss Manuel Pellegrini the Dons were nothing to worry about.
To be fair, it wasn’t as if Pellegrini fielded a weak team. The likes of Mark Noble, Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll are no mugs.
Yet they were blown away by an AFC Wimbledon team that showed five changes from the Fleetwood game – and all the goals came from players who didn’t start against the Cod Army.
But how else can you explain the Dons’ startling difference in performance? Manager Wally Downes, one of the original members of the Crazy Gang, mentioned that the expectation of having to beat Fleetwood may have got to his players.
Bottom of the table, the Dons were in desperate need of a maximum haul against Joey Barton’s boys, but had no spark or invention in their play. The visitors cruised to victory.
In contrast, there was no pressure on AFC Wimbledon against West Ham. No one gave them a prayer. They had been completely written off.
There was no burden of a League One relegation battle, the shackles were off and in many ways it was a ‘free hit’.
Meanwhile, opponents West Ham, who had beaten the Dons in the Carabao Cup back in August, appeared to turn up believing they had to do just that to win – turn up.
The normally mild-mannered Pellegrini was fuming with his players afterwards.
“It’s very easy to explain what happened - it was one team who wanted to win and another team who played without any desire or any ambition to win or continue in this cup,” he said.
Another example is Brentford. When Thomas Frank took over as manager, they lost eight of his first ten matches in charge.
After that, the Bees went unbeaten in their next ten. An air of doom and gloom had been wiped away to be replaced by hope and optimism.
Bees winger Sergi Canos said: “You know how football works - you go on good runs and bad runs, but the most important thing is to stay positive, stick together and keep believing.
“I know it’s difficult to keep believing when the results esults are not the best, but you can see the difference between this team playing three months ago and playing now – it’s all about confidence.
“It’s all credit to everyone at the club. Thomas has led us to where we are now and we’ve pushed a lot to get there. The team is playing some great football.”
Their upturn in result took Brentford well away from the Championship’s drop zone, but rock-bottom AFC Wimbledon face a real fight to preserve their League One status.
Boss Downes, who only took the reins in early December, will prepare them as best he can.
But, as he admitted after the Hammers game, “Football is random. There is a load of analysis we do, me included, but on any given day, any team can beat any other team and we have done it tonight.”
Greavsie was right – football is a funny old game, totally unpredictable. And that’s why we love it so much.