AFC Wimbledon 0–1 Exeter City
Monday night. Cold. Familiar.
The end of the year is meant to be a time for reflection. A pause. A look back at what worked, what didn’t, and what we quietly agree never to mention again.
When we decided to start this blog, we assumed there would be ups and downs. That felt like a safe bet. We even assumed there would be plenty to write about, because there always is with this club.
What we didn’t anticipate was that we would end the year without winning a league game for the final two months of it.
That has a way of sharpening the reflection.
It also has a way of making every match feel heavier than it probably should. Not disastrous. Not terminal. Just increasingly familiar. Effort without reward. Possession without threat. Conversations that start with patience and end with unease.
Monday night against Exeter City fitted neatly into that pattern. A tight game. A single goal. Plenty of reasons afterwards to feel unlucky. Just enough truth in the performance to make those reasons uncomfortable.
And so, as the calendar runs out and the run continues, this is where we are.
The team
Also involved:
Brown, Bugiel, Hippolyte, Hackford.
Notable absences:
McCoy-Splatt: Still missing.
Midfield Depth: Also missing.
The match
It began with tempo, which briefly fooled everyone.
Sasu and Stevens combined. Dec-cock drove forward. The ball moved quickly enough to suggest intent rather than habit.
Then Sasu went down and the game exhaled.
From there it slowed. Not dramatically. Just enough. Side to side. Reset. Pass again. Exeter adjusted without fuss and stopped being threatened.
The warning signs arrived before the goal. Crosses dealt with. Half chances blocked. Reeves © into the wall. Everything happening in front of Exeter.
The goal itself was simple. A cross. A free header. Defendable. Undone by a moment of passive watching.
Second half, we had territory. We had noise. We had appeals. We had a goal ruled out and a penalty not given.
We did not have shots on target.
Yes, Bugiel caused problems. Yes, the disallowed goal was soft. Yes, there were penalty shouts. All of that can be true. It can also be true that Exeter were largely comfortable defending what we threw at them.
What the Manager is saying
“I think we created chaos in the second half.”
Did we?
Eight shots. Zero on target. Zero big chances. Crossing accuracy hovering around thirty percent.
That is not chaos. That is volume.
The reaction has split. Some nodding along. Some asking uncomfortable questions
Womble of the Week: Steve Seddon
Consistent. Reliable. Again.
If there is a player quietly doing their job every week while everything around them shifts, it is him.
No drama. No hiding. Just competence.
The bigger problem
This is where the conversation actually starts.
We are slow. Not in effort. In execution.
Everything now happens in front of the opposition. Side to side passing. Everyone having a touch. Everyone facing play. Nobody really running beyond. Nobody forcing defenders to turn.
We follow a pattern. That pattern ends with a cross. Often after a long spell of possession. Often from deep. Often with defenders set and waiting.
Earlier in the season we had something else. Pace in transition. Hackford running channels. One-on-ones. Moments of uncertainty for opposition defenders.
That has gone. And without it, nobody drops off us anymore. Nobody worries about space behind. They just sit and deal with what is coming because they know what is coming.
Crossing is not the problem. Reliance on it is.
Johnnie Jackson has many strengths. Calm. Dignified. Trustworthy. A builder, not a chancer.
But he is also cautious. And right now that caution is bleeding into predictability.
There seem to be very few deliberate curveballs. Very little that forces opponents to re-think mid-game. No little moments where you think, oh, that is different.
That is partly squad. Partly budget. Partly injuries.
But if WombleWorld can predict how we will line up and play, professional analysts definitely can.
Midfield on fumes
This cannot be ignored.
With McCoy-Splat officially a missing person, the midfield has no rotation. Smith is doing everything. Reeves © is doing everything. Legs do not regenerate because the fixture list says so.
If McCoy-Splatt cannot be found in the Phantom Realm, then someone else has to be summoned.
Kai Jennings is in purgatory. Or Sutton. Same thing. Bring him back. And then play him. From the start of matches. Do something different. Continuing as we are and hoping sharpness returns is not a plan.
Closing thoughts
This is not a call for heads. That stuff is lazy.
The budget is tight. We knew that. This season was always going to test patience. The next one will too.
But patience does not mean pretending problems are imaginary.
Things will not “definitely turn” unless something changes. Turning is not automatic. It is deliberate.
Right now, we are predictable, short of legs, and overly reliant on a single attacking idea.
As we look ahead to 2026, there is still plenty to work with here.
But there is also plenty that needs rethinking.
Ending the year without a league win is not fatal. Ending it without fresh ideas would be.
WombleWorld
Craig Cope will spend New Year’s Eve plotting how to spend the We Are Wimbledon Fund donation.
£20k should be enough for some new training cones, a licensed bounty hunter to retrieve McCoy-Splatt, and a round of San Miguels for the management team while they wait.