AFC WIMBLEDON PROMOTED TO LEAGUE ONE

CONGRATULATIONS TO ONE AND ALL 

 TAKE A BOW LADS. 

A wonderful 2-0 win over Plymouth in front of 20,000+ Wombles (and about 35k from Plymouth, fair play to them) makes me so happy this weekend. 

Enjoy your summer break guys cos you earned it. 

Thank you to all involved in this amazing, unique and awesome club. 14 years to the day we were formed again and another promotion too, now we get to visit some new grounds again the likes of Bolton, Sheffield United, Coventry. 

Now take us back to Plough Lane !! Come Mr Khan you know it's our destiny. 

LEAGUE TWO PLAY OFF FINAL -- AFC WIMBLEDON vs PLYMOUTH ARGYLE

MONDAY 30th MAY 2016 -- WEMBLEY STADIUM KO 3PM

YES WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO WEMBLEY, EXCITING TIMES TO BE A WOMBLE. 

Just when you though the season was over ... 

Wimbledon have reached the League Two play off final at Wembley and will be facing Plymouth Argyle on Monday afternoon. This is another season of improvement under Neal Ardley and well done to all the players on giving the fans another wonderful end of season day out. 

Echo's of our Conference Play off win though that was at the City of Manchester Stadium home of Manchester City so visiting Wembley is much closer to home, going to be a exciting and nervous occasion but honestly whatever the result this is still great times for the club as a whole. We believe this will be Adebayo Akinfenwa's last game for the Dons so hopefully he can do what Danny Kedwell did for us in his last game for us and shoot us to promotion.

Of course a win would be awesome, another promotion to add to our short but illustrious history, League One football gives us further chances to improve, more reasons to think that the new stadium can be approved, and a chance to over take them horrible smelly Franchise too and another nail in their coffin. 

All this from a team that was deemed to be "not in the wider interests of football".

Anyway on with the game...

Line Ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON   [Match Odds -- 15/8 (William Hill)]

Roos (Gk), Fuller (c), Robinson,  Charles,  Kennedy,  Smith,  Reeves, Bulman,  Barcham,  Elliott,  Taylor

Subs – Shea (Gk),  Azeez,  Akinfenwa,  Rigg,   Meades,  Sweeney,  Murphy

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE   [Match Odds -- 6/4 (William Hill)]

McCormick (GK),  Mellor,  Nelson (c),  Hartley,  Sawyer,  McHugh,  Boateng,  Jervis,  Carey,  Wylde,  Matt.

Subs –  Dorel (gk),  Harvey,  Purrington,  Houghton,  Tanner,  Forster,  Reid.

H/T Score – 0 - 0.



F/T Score – 0 - 0.



Match Summary;.



Man of the Match – Paul Robinson.



Referee -- Ref for the Wombles v Plymouth Play Off Final is Iain Williamson, 45, from Thatcham in Berkshire.

A Football League referee since 2002. Works as a sales director for Computershare in Bristol. Opinions on him are mixed - some say he's terrible, others say he's dreadful - but he's definitely picky, fussy and thinks football isn't a contact sport. Great, so best sit this one out Mr Akinfenwa.


Attendance – 57,956.

PONTEFRACT HORSE RACING SYSTEM -- 2016 TURF SEASON -- PART FOUR

PONTEFRACT SEASON 2016
Friday 27th May 2016
4th Meeting of this season ... 

Fourth instalment for our system that focuses on Pontefract racecourse, West Yorkshire. After the first few meetings we are pleased to be showing a reasonable profit figure of +7.125 points to level stakes at SP.

We quickly move onto our 4th meeting of the season, this Friday the first of a few evening race meetings and we should get under way around 18:30, we'll hope for a few winners tonight.

As always we count ALL results for this meeting returned to a level stake at SP, and will also show any forecast results too in the daily results but these do not count for the profit / loss figures.

The forecast going is currently reported as 'Good, Good to firm in places' the weather for Friday night is for a cloudy day in the most part, could be a few drops of rain in the afternoon but for May is not too bad top temp is 19C but probably a little cooler by race time.

Here are our selections for the 6 race card on Friday evening, remember it's a very simple selection process of stalls 1 and 2 in every race;


6:30 1m 4y Handicap.
(1) -- LOPES DANCER  3rd 9/2
(2) -- TALENT SCOUT  4th 15/2


7:00 1m 4f 8y Handicap.
(1) -- RUSSIAN ROYALE  3rd 7/1
(2) -- POETIC VERSE  8th 4/1

7:30 6f Conditions Race (2yo).
(1) -- YALTA  WON 4/9F
(2) -- WEDDING DRESS 2nd 8/1  

8:00 5f Handicap.

(1) -- KIBAAR  8th 6/1
(2) -- MAJESTIC HERO  2nd 4/1


8:30 1m 2f 6y Fillies Handicap.
(1) -- KILIM  6th 15/2
(2) -- PELOPONNESE  WON 10/11F


9:00 6f Maiden.
(1) -- OYSTER CARD  5th 25/1
(2) -- MISTER MISCHIEF  3rd 4/1

Staked -- 12 points

Returned -- 3.34 points

b/f from meeting #3 -- +7.125 points Profit

Just a couple of very short price wins tonight and a few places, so a loss again tonight sadly and we are in negative territory now but only just. Carrying over -1.535 loss. 

The next Pontefract meeting will take place during the evening of Monday 6th June.

Have a good day.

PONTEFRACT RACES 2016 SEASON

SANDOWN PARK RACES -- THURSDAY 26th MAY (Evening)

The best evening race card of the season takes place at Sandown Park on Thursday 26th May. This meeting features two Group Three races on it's six race card, the HENRY II Stakes over 2m and THE BRIGADIER GERARD Stakes over 1m 2f. 

This is a meeting that I attend each year as it falls close to my older brother's birthday, so we'll make a night of it with some of his boys, and a few winners would be nice. 

A link to the evening race card can be found here;
 -- http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/meeting/sandown-park/26-05-2016/fast-cards


And here are the evenings races and my selections;
6:00pm -- THE CARDINAL WOLSEY HANDICAP STAKES 
(Jockey Club Grassroots Flat Middle Distance Series Qualifier) 1 mile 2 furlongs

The opening handicap is pretty competitive with 11 runners lined up, INNISCASTLE LAD [WON 9/2] is sure to be popular in pursuit of his hat trick tonight, with SPECULATOR the chief danger.


6:35pm -- THE NATIONAL STAKES (Listed Race) 
5 furlongs 

MEHMAS (NAP) Won his races well at Chester and Newbury quickened away last time and should take all the beating here.


7:05pm THE HENRY II STAKES (Group 3)
2 miles 78yds

Just the 5 runners, but MAX DYNAMITE is one of them and his Melbourne Cup performance when runner up to Prince of Penzance is far and away the best 2m form on offer and should win this. Won't be much of a price so no bet for me and just watch instead.


7:40pm THE BRIGADIER GERARD STAKES (Group 3) 
1 mile 2 furlongs

Last years winner WESTERN HYMN reappears again and could be tough to beat once more under Frankie Dettori, can take care of both TIME TEST and INTILAAQ. 

Market support for SCOTTISH could be interesting but I will stick with the proven form of Western Hymn.


8:15pm THE HERON STAKES (Listed Race) 
1 mile 14y

Another small field for this Listed race, only six participants with a chance to be made for most only PALAWAN seems to be up against it here. 

Richard Hannon's ATLANTIC SUN was only denied by a short head last time at Ascot, so should appreciate this long galloping track and might have most to fear from Sir Michael Stoute's FORGE who won a Doncaster maiden by 5L and promoted straight into listed class so must be fancied by his connections.



8:45pm Whitsun Cup Handicap
1 mile 14y

A decent line up for the finale with 14 facing the starter and it's the top two that I want to be on HIGHLAND COLORI and JAILAWI will have to go some to concede the weight but both seem capable.



Have a fun evening and Happy Birthday Graham. 

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2016 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #17 25th MAY

Last time out before a little spring break we suffered another poor week and dropped another 7 points which has quickly taken us up to -48 points loss overall. Not as good as recent seasons but still time to recover things. At least the places paid a little bit and the LAY bets are also still losing (or winning, depending on your view) so I'm optimistic that things will turn in our favour soon.

As always our focus will be on the handicap contests for each meeting but will occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1pt level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds but for the purpose of the results we record to SP.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunity of short priced favourites and as a result of yet another successful lay last week we have a success rate of 8 from 8. Results for this will be kept separately too and hopefully we can remain at 100% for a long while yet.

This week there's a 6 race card on offer, 5 of which are handicaps including another round in the London Middle Distance Series and the London Mile Qualifiers, the meeting will commence at 18:20 with the London Mile event.

Here is a link to the evenings race card;
http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/meeting/kempton-park/25-05-2016/fast-cards

The going on the polytrack surface as usual is described as Standard and the current weather forecast is for a patchy day with some clouds and a chance of some heavy showers. The temperature is likely to remain at about 17C when the meetings begins and will cool during the evening.

Here are our selections for this weeks handicaps;

18:20 -- 1m London Mile Series Handicap.

Great to kick off with a nice competitive event, where the chances of HOT MUSTARD [3rd 10/1] would be improved if he can run up to the level of his short head second at Sandown when rated in the mid 70s. Can run off 68 tonight and certainly has a good chance of making the frame from an excellent draw. 

Also in the mix is ROXIE LOT [6th 10/1] and will be backing both against the field in the opener.


19:20 -- 7f Handicap.

A very tricky handicap next where again I shall pick a pair against the field at double figure odds, those are MICKEY HALLER [5th 16/1] and the bottom weight EXALTED [WON 8/1]. 

The former has only 4 career runs and hasn't been too far away now he's handicapped worth a go in this company, Exalted is much more experienced, with AW experience around this track to assist, shouldn't be far away.


19:50 -- 1m 3f London Middle Distance Handicap.

Only the 7 runners, market support for AL KHAFJI [4th 5/4F] would be no surprise despite the only one in the field without a run this term, but Frankie on board and should be fit to race.


20:20 -- 6f Handicap.

Another good handicap for a midweek evening, this class 3 has plenty of depth and course / distance winners. 

Taking a chance on couple of big price selections, drawn high and low so all options covered, top weight FLECKERL [7th 33/1] is the first along with MORACHE MUSIC [8th 16/1] who might not be getting younger but has been racing in class 1 and 2 company and won off 104 so could still have something in them and at 33/1 worth a small win/place.


20:50 -- 2m Handicap.

In the finale we find our next LAY BET as SNOW CONDITIONS (LAY) [LOST 4th 9/2F] is taking a large step up and is paper fav for a win around here in a class 6 contest a couple of months ago. 

Taking that one on with the pair KURIOSA [5th 8/1] and FERN OWL [8th 5/1]. 



Staked -- 9 points
Returns -- 9 points

Loss b/f -- -48 Points

Lays -- 9/9 (Still 100% with another successful lay).


A break even night, but a successful lay and 9/9 now. 

Back in a couple of weeks time for the next evening meeting on Wednesday 8th June.

AFC WIMBLEDON V ACCRINGTON STANLEY -- WED 18th MAY

LEAGUE TWO PLAY OFF SEMI FINAL SECOND LEG

AFC Wimbledon travel up to Accrington on Wednesday for their 2nd leg of the League Two play off semi final. Having secured a 1-0 win at home on Saturday evening thanks to a late late Tom Beere goal they go into this game with a slight advantage.

About a 1000 travelling Wombles are expected, and the supporters official coaches departed from Kingsmeadow about midday today. Victory will mean a return to Wembley against Plymouth and we've a good recent record against Stanley who are probably still wondering how they didn't achieve automatic promotion.

Expecting another tight game tonight, probably the same line up but would love to see The Beast (Adebayo Akinfenwa) have a longer run out as he did cause them a lot of problems on Saturday once he came off the bench.

• Stanley are unbeaten in their last seven league games at home (W3 D4), with clean sheets in each of the last two.
• The Dons have kept clean sheets in their last two league away games and are unbeaten in their last four league away trips (W3 D1).
• Accrington have won four of their previous five home games against the Dons in the Football League.
• Wimbledon's solitary league victory away to Accrington came back in October, after the Dons triumphed in a seven goal thriller (4-3).
• Accrington have now lost all three of their Football League play-off games, conceding four times and failing to score in all three.

Line Ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON [Match Odds -- 13/5 (William Hill)]

Roos (Gk), Fuller (c), Robinson,  Charles,  Kennedy,  Rigg,  Reeves, Bulman,  Barcham,  Elliott,  Taylor

Subs – Shea (Gk),  Azeez,  Akinfenwa,  Beere,   Fitzpatrick,  Sweeney,  Murphy

ACCRINGTON STANLEY [Match Odds -- 11/10 (William Hill)]


Etheridge (GK),  Pearson,  Davies,  Buxton,  Hughes,  Mingoia,  Conneely,  Brown,  McCartan,  Windass,  Kee

Subs – Winnard,  Gornell,  Little,  Boco,  Fosu-Henry,  Mooney,  Halliday




H/T Score – 1 - 0.

First Half Comment; 

A scrappy first half with no real outstanding chances, an early effort from Lyle Taylor, but it was a quick throw in that caught out the Wombles defence and conceded a Penalty which Joss Windass coolly converted.

Given the size of some of these Accy players they all seem to fall down very easy, perhaps it's a balance issue up north. 

All to play for in the second half. 

F/T Score – 2 - 2 (Extra Time in progress)
AFC WIMBLEDON WIN 3 - 2 ON AGGREGATE AET!!

Match Summary;
Who cares, the DONS ARE OFF TO WEMBLEY. 

Man of the Match – ALL OF THEM, Maybe Jake Reeves or Darius Charles gets the vote.

Referee -- Ref for our play off game against Accrington Stanley is Eddie Ilderton, 46, from Newcastle. 

A Football League referee since 2002, works as a cop in Nottingham. Consensus is that he's laid back, good at communicating with players and reads the game well, which is why we very rarely see him in League 2. 

Attendance – 4,634. (about 1,200 travelling Wombles)

Next match:
Sky Bet League 2 Play Off FINAL

Monday May 30th
Plymouth vs AFC WIMBLEDON !!

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2016 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #16 18th MAY

Last time out before a little spring break we suffered another poor week and dropped another 14 points which has quickly taken us up to -41 points loss overall. Not as good as recent seasons but still time to recover things. At least the places paid a little bit and the LAY bets are also still losing (or winning, depending on your view) so I'm optimistic that things will turn in our favour soon.

As always our focus will be on the handicap contests for each meeting but will occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1pt level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds but for the purpose of the results we record to SP.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunity of short priced favourites and as a result of yet another successful lay last week we have a success rate of 7 from 7. Results for this will be kept separately too and hopefully we can remain at 100% for a long while yet.

This week there's a 7 race card on offer, 5 of which are handicaps including another round in the London Middle Distance Series and the London Mile Qualifiers, the meeting will commence at 17:55 with a 1m 3f Handicap.

Here is a link to the evenings race card;
http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/meeting/kempton-park/18-05-2016/fast-cards

The going on the polytrack surface as usual is described as Standard and the current weather forecast is for a patchy day with some clouds and a chance of some heavy showers. The temperature is likely to remain at about 17C when the meetings begins and will cool during the evening.

Here are our selections for this weeks handicaps;

17:55 -- 1m 3f Apprentice Handicap.
Our opening contest is an apprentice race with just the eight declared and GLASGOW CENTRAL seeking a hat trick after recent wins at Lingfield and Brighton. [2nd 4/1]

Although this is a different surface and track he has the best form coming into the race and should be hard to beat.


19:25 -- 1m 3f London Middle Distance Series Handicap.
First of the two better races tonight, the 1m 3f series does through up a few matches and regular runners which is good. 

Of the 13 runners FALLEN FROM A STAR finally broke his duck in a maiden and could still place in this for some top connections, but I prefer the proven form of TANGRAMM who has run up a nice sequence and could well be still improving after a couple of months off. [5th 16/1]

Will back that one along with HIGHER POWER against the field if I can get 5/1 or better. [3rd 7/2]


19:55 -- 1m London Mile Series Handicap.
The mile series contest has attracted a field of 14 and it's the two CD winners that we fancy against the field with PRESUMIDO [12th 16/1] and FLY (N/R).

The jolly here looks like being the Godolphin owned IMPORTANT POINT (LAY) [LOST 10th 7/4F] but has one run once winning an average maiden at Wolves last autumn and seems to be worth taking on in this company so will be our LAY for today.


20:25 -- 7f Handicap.
A very tight affair now, with just 3lb separating 14 runners, this should be a close finish.

Will pick the pair of MISU PETE [3rd 14/1] and COMPARATIVE [14th 12/1] against the field here in what is a betting minefield.


20:55 -- 6f Handicap.
The finale is one where BRIDGE BUILDER [3rd 11/4] can win off top weight and a small rise for another recent victory here. 

Can go from the front and that might be enough if he's got them on the stretch in the final few furlongs.


Staked -- 8 points
Returns -- 1 points (Fly N/R in 19:55) couple of places but no wins, at least the Lay come off again.

Loss b/f -- - 48 Points

Lays -- 8/8 (One tonight in the 19:55, it LOST so remains 100% success with these so far.).


Results will be posted during this evening, the next evening meeting is on Wednesday 25th May.

AFC WIMBLEDON PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

After the 1-0 win over Newport County on Saturday the following awards were presented;


Players player of the year is Barry Fuller.


Wisa player of the year is Paul Robinson.


Young player of the year Adebayo Azeez. 


Surprised that Lyle Taylor missed out but maybe his late goalscoring exploits came too late in the season to make enough impact on the votes. 

Well done to all ... now go secure that Wembley Play Off Final place !! 

Proud to be a Womble. 

AFC WIMBLEDON V NEWPORT COUNTY -- SAT 7th MAY

AFC Wimbledon play their final regular league fixture at home to Newport County this weekend. Happily though this season there will be a few more games to go, having successfully secured a play off berth with last weekend's 0-0 draw against Stevenage. 

That result coupled with Cambridge's 2-2 draw with Plymouth meant the Dons will finish inside the top seven and achieve the best league position in their short history. Formed in 2002 following the FA Commission's decision to allow Wimbledon FC under their new owners to relocate to Milton Keynes, AFC Wimbledon won five promotions to reach the Football League in 2011.

Since Wimbledon cannot improve on their 7th place this weekend they will face whoever finishes in 4th place, and that will come out of Oxford, Accrington Stanley and Bristol Rovers. Personally I'd want Bristol Rovers over two legs as we perform terribly against Oxford even in our Conference Days and Bristol is an easier journey for most than Accy. 

So while this weekend will be nothing more than an end of season stroll we should be looking ahead to the next few important games and a win would keep up the momentum into those play off matches.  

Line Ups (Confirmed);

  AFC WIMBLEDON
  Odds -- 5/6 (William Hill) 


 Shea (Gk),  Fuller (c), Sweeney,  Nightingale,  Kennedy,  Fiztpatrick,  Murphy,  Smith,  Reeves,  Azeez,  Akinfenwa  



Subs – McDonnell (Gk),  Beere,  Rigg,  Gallagher,  Kaja,  Kalambayi,  Olusanya

NEWPORT COUNTY
Odds -- 19/5 (William Hill) 


R Taylor (GK),  Holmes,  Hughes,  Partridge,  Davies,  Barrow, Owen-Evans, Rodman,  Byrne,  John-Lewis,  Boden

Subs –  Jones,  Coulibaly,  Green,  Parselle,  Meechan,  O'Sullivan,  Angel

H/T Score – 0 - 0

First Half Comment;  Wombles final home league game (playoffs excluded) see's Shea back in goal and Roos rested, rare starts for Azeez and Akinfenwa up front with in form Lyle Taylor left out entirely. Bayo had a chance in opening 10 mins otherwise little to shout about so far.

On 20 mins Azeez is fouled in the penalty area - goes down - glanced at by ref - goal kick Newport. Ref still looking for his glasses!

Connor Smith taken off on a stretcher after a nasty clash which gives us 10 mins of injury time at the end of the first half. 

Ref isn't helping this game and it's fairly poor so far.


F/T Score – 1- 0

Match Summary;
A late penalty won it for the Dons, but it's a game to forget and move onto the play offs, where the Dons will face Accrington Stanley. 


Man of the Match – Adebayo Akinfenwa.

Referee -- Ref for Newport game is Geoff Eltringham, 38, from County Durham. 

A Football League ref since 2009. Reffed Wombles three times; the 1-1 draw with Shots back in 2012 (2Y), the 2-0 away loss to Bury in April 2015 (2Y) and the shitty 2-1 loss to Morecambe in March.

Attendance – 4,427.

Next matches:
Sky Bet League 2
Leg 1 Wombles v Accrington Stanley
Saturday 14th May (7.30pm) 

Leg 2 (Accrington Stanley v Wombles
Wednesday 18th May (7.45pm)