MK DONS

Vice-Captain

Status: Offline

Posts: 1715

Date: Fri Mar 4 09:20 2022

Here we go - biggest game of the season - since the previous biggest game of the season last Tuesday. I'm pretty confident that we will see a performance that bears no resemblance to the painful second half at Shrewsbury. If that 45 minutes proved anything, it is how fundamental Barlaser and Rathbone are to this team performing to its optimum level.

According to PW, only REG and Miller are unavailable tomorrow. Whether Wood is up to 2 games in short succession only he will know. If Wood is not fresh, I would have Harding, Icky and Mattock across the back and have our strongest midfield on the park from the start - Oggie, Rathbone, Wiles, Barlaser and Fergusson. Smudge up front with Freddie is probably inevitable unless PW goes for a change of formation.

A strong start and a vocal backing from the crowd should see us impose ourselves and, with an early goal, I think we'll go on to extend our lead over the Dons come 5pm!

Onwards and upwards!!

__________________

smiler

Testimonial

Status: Offline

Posts: 4501

Date: Fri Mar 4 17:45 2022

	Permalink
Difficult as it may be we mustn't have the mindset that everything turns on this game. We could lose it and still be effectively eight points clear of them. Not a bad place to be. Relax, try to enjoy it and do what we do. We dont need to fear anyone. UTM. __________________

smiler

Testimonial

Status: Offline

Posts: 4501

Date: Sat Mar 5 18:45 2022

Permalink

Big opportunity missed today. Difficult to explain. We have been poor for a while now but 1-0 up after half an hour and against ten men was a bit of a gift. Credit to Plastic FC for a great effort but it shouldn't have been allowed to happen. Hopefully that will get us re-focussed. Disappointing that we can be top of the league with points in hand and ten games to go and after a rare defeat it is a time for the idiots to come out of the woodwork. Apparently according to some Warne is now completely incompetent and him and the players are all bottlers. For crying out loud. We are still in a great position.

__________________

BradtheMiller

Captain

Status: Offline

Posts: 2270

Date: Sun Mar 6 07:01 2022

Permalink

Extremely disappointing performance that for me smacked of complaicency. Relatively in control after the pen & red card 1st half, Freddie misses an absolute sitter on the stroke of HT & we go in a goal up.
Second half WTF happened (or didn't happen)? The second phase after the corner not defended at all & Darling has an easy header. Five minutes later & Barlaser thinks he has all day, successfully pressed, one pass & 2-1. Half a hour to get back into it, one or two half chances but MK defended well, we didn't show enough intensity & we lost, yeah very disappointing but not a disaster & certainly not worthy of the social media meltdown that is occuring. Lessons certainly to be learned & how to defend properly when Woody's not there to organise is one of them.

__________________

GlennMiller

Vice-Captain

Status: Offline

Posts: 1715

Date: Sun Mar 6 08:01 2022

Permalink

Never felt comfortable yesterday - even at 1-0 up and against 10 men. MKD were excellent in their organisation and their clinical finishing. Chasing the game, we appeared very predictable and there was very little movement up front to allow an alternative to slowly moving the ball across the backline and hoping to make an incursion down the flanks. It appears a major setback but that is to ignore our elevated position and our excellent results throughout the season so far. A good performance and result at Wycombe will see the confidence return and should settle some nerves. And yes, there is an element of our support who appear to rejoice in our misfortune and can't wait to get stuck into the manager and players. Those same people are unnoticeable when we're winning!!

__________________

DKNY

Reserve Team

Status: Offline

Posts: 106

Date: Sun Mar 6 17:31 2022

Permalink

Really frustrating result and league table given that we were hypothetically 13 points clear at half time and leading against 10 men.

We started the game badly and ought to have been 1 down inside a minute, and almost conceded after 7 minutes i think it was when Icky was dispossessed on the byline. But we fought back into it and the penalty came from a fabulous ball by Ferguson for Smudge to flick on. I thought the red card seemed harsh but the laws of the game had been applied correctly, just felt a penalty and a yellow would be adequate punishment.

From there it felt like a gift horse and couldn’t imagine us losing from there. They looked like they still might score but equally i thought they were mad to keep rolling it to the full backs when we were pressing and i felt it might lead to a goal. Just before half time we could and should have won the game when Freddy missed a sitter after an excellent move involving Rathbone and Ogbene.

In the second half they sat back and we played keep ball on the half way line. They have been critisised for this but i was happy for us patiently looking for another opening. The one issue i had with it was the reliance on the ball to Ogbene and not trying anything else to mix it up. Then came 2 mad minutes, i think we lost posession prior to their corner and we certainly did prior to the second goal. Suddenly it’s all turned on its head.
After that i never felt confident of us scoring, despite the brilliant run we’ve been on. I didn’t see the point of going 3 up front, this seemed to just add to the overcrowding in the box.

So 7 point ahead of them now. Which is a great position to be in, unless of course you’d spent half the afternoon thinking we were 13 clear and it was all over. Never has a mad 2 minutes better illustrated the meaning of “six pointer”

__________________

Topic: MK DONS

MK DONS