Wombles up!

[Alan Southstand]

That’s one home match I won’t be bothered about missing!

[karlos]

Oh dear 15 points up and they don't even get promoted. Shame

[steve@dcfd]

 :bbscarf:Wimbledon 26 clean sheets against what Sky saying the best attack in the league. But they haven’t been since January. We have. Well Wimbledon scored the 1 goal and Walsall never looked like equalising or winning.
Three out of the four U21 keepers play in league 2. Walsall Wimbledon and Doncaster all loan keepers

[Pintolager]

I wasn't bothered who won today, but well done Wimbledon. Always respected the club, whether the original or new...they have a spirit about them that I like. Also, a new ground for me to tick off, depending when the away game is.

[Surrey Rover]

On behalf of the London and South East branch a good result for us!

[les@donr]

Well done Wimbledon you deserved it.

[Petche]

Horrible team, always have been!

[Fal]

Jordan Gibson and Joe Sbarra absolutely ripping the piss out of Walsall on X haha

[The Dav]

Horrible shithousery team !

[jmt23]

There was a Walsall fan on here half way through the season saying they could lose every game and still get up, they are so far ahead…

Their fans must be absolutely gutted, I blame the manager and his tactics, they were a decent team going forward, but he wanted to play like Wimbledon - score then defend for your lives, do not pass the half way line. 

[EasyforDennis]

Awful game to watch, Wimbledon up to all their old tricks and Walsall could still be playing and they wouldn't score.

[Draytonian III]

Walsall manager will be sacked before the weekend, serves him right.
On the other hand I don’t get this love - in with AFC Wimbledon, they are not the same club as the Crazy Gang etc

[mushRTID]

I’d have sacked him with 4/5 games to go.

Surely any whiff of a new manager bounce would have dragged them over the line.

What a failure

[Alan Southstand]

It would be their luck to then appoint the ex Notts County manager?

[scawsby steve]

Wimbledon have had to rise from the ashes as a phoenix club, after being shafted by Franchise FC.

For that they'll always have my respect.

[BobG]

Horrible team, always have been!

Yes. They really have always been so. Remember their directors being coffee bombed in the directors box at BV? They were an awful, nasty team that day too - and that must have been late 70's.

Brave club, but a horrid team.

BobG

[Jonathan]

Re: Walsall and the calls to sack the manager… I get it , given we live in such a short term / reactive world these days. However, before the season began, would they have really considered a play off finish and narrow defeat at Wembley to be such a glaring failure? If he’s getting sacked then it’s for not managing to follow through his own success that he built. Like when Leicester fired Ranieri a matter of months after winning the league. Harsh game.

[IDM]

Wimbledon have had to rise from the ashes as a phoenix club, after being shafted by Franchise FC.

For that they'll always have my respect.

AFC Wimbledon was formed before MK Dons I believe - when Wimbledon FC moved to MK.

[PDX_Rover]

Sam f**king Hamamm

[scawsby steve]

Wimbledon have had to rise from the ashes as a phoenix club, after being shafted by Franchise FC.

For that they'll always have my respect.

AFC Wimbledon was formed before MK Dons I believe - when Wimbledon FC moved to MK.

Yes, because the fans knew what was going to happen, and started the ball rolling early.

What happened then was phenomenal. 6 promotions in 13 seasons, from tier 9 to tier 3. I think all the people that made that happen deserve tremendous credit.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Have Walsall got any players worth having do we think?

[Pancho Regan]

12 points clear at the top of the league on January 20th, but failed to win the title.

Newcastle United, 1996.

But Newcastle only had one target to hit. Shit or bust. Finish top, or fail.

Walsall, on the other hand, had no fewer than 3 safety nets to catch them if they fell. Four possible routes to promotion.
They couldn’t fail, surely?

What has unfolded has to be one of the most incredible capitulations in the history of our game.
And just to rub salt in the wounds of the Walsall faithful, they took them to Wembley, to within 90 minutes of rescuing some success from the jaws of ignominious and unbelievable failure.

Their manager will do well to survive this amazing reverse. He seems incapable of reading the room.
When Walsall slipped out of the top three for the first time this season, he said “We are where we wanted to be”.

And tonight, having blown their chances of promotion after holding what seemed an unassailable lead, he reflected that “We have certainly moved the club forward this season”.

I’m not sure the Walsall fans will be feeling that tonight.

[MachoMadness]

Have Walsall got any players worth having do we think?

Jellis, but looking at the way Gibson is needling him on twitter it's probably unlikely!

[danumdon]

This is a truly an awful team that has been promoted.

I believe they got promoted playing their style of "football" because at the league2 level it was a possibility to do so, big, athletic, niggly and very limited skill wise teams who play a very basic style always seem to do well at this level.

The big conundrum for them is how and what they will do to expand on this system next season playing against sides who have the skill and commitment to go with the bog, strong and niggly factor. Im not aware of their spending power or level of investment they can produce but if they don't improve and expand on that very basic style of football then they will be found out relatively early and struggle for the rest of the season.

There's a  reason why managers like GM, SOD attempted to build a team with skill and basically good football traits to go along with all the other elements, if you want to succeed in football you need to play football!

Whatever it was that Wimbledon did last season, its 2025 and trying to recreate the glories of the Bassett era as the progress to a new level won't wash now.

[keyser_soze]

Shame. I hold far more animosity for Joe Lewis and his hot pants than Jamie Jellis and the Warsaw lot (particularly as it’s a local fixture for me).

Poor Walsall. It really is the hope that kills you with footy isn’t it

[chrisd_123]

The Walsall players must have been going all out housery in the first half of the season, whether that was on the pitch, social media or in player circles outside, because there's a lot of fans and, more telling, players from different clubs all having digs at Walsall as a club or individual players - I've seen the keeper getting a few pelters.

They clearly got too far ahead of themselves as players. Fans do it of course, but I'd imagine if we were 16/17 points clear of 4th place in January that whilst we'd have been elated, GM would have had the squad's feet firmly on the ground going for records etc.

[Draytonian III]

If we had been 16/17 points clear in January we would have had the league won, why because our manager and staff would have made sure that we would have. 3 seasons in 2 spells, 2 playoff semi defeats on penalties and a Championship

[Sammy Chung was King]

Walsall have quite a few players worth having. Who would have thought at one stage of the season that they were going to be anything but champions? Even at that time something told me we still had a chance to win it. I thought it was heart ruling the head at the time. A great comeback that our team mounted. The capitulation of Walsall has to be a mindset thing surely?

[keyser_soze]

The keeper in particular has got loads of backs up with theatrical diving, rolling around on the floor, feigning injury to waste time and sliding about on his knees in front of away fans.

Interesting that he, TSL and Goodman from Wimbledon make up 3 of the current England U21 crop I believe.

[roversdude]

Simpkin particularly wound up the Chesterfield fans with his performance in the playoffs