@Wanderers82 said:
we were terrible in 1st half , netter in 2nd , MK are awful and we rely so heavily on vokes , mccleary was the poorest I have seen him play , but by the love of God, that ref was the worst I have ever seen ...just crap and small
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
@Wanderers82 said:
we were terrible in 1st half , netter in 2nd , MK are awful and we rely so heavily on vokes , mccleary was the poorest I have seen him play , but by the love of God, that ref was the worst I have ever seen ...just crap and small
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
That was frustrating I agree, but Vokes shot after the whistle which led to it, and this was not long after he booked Parrot (I think) for shooting after he had blown the whistle so he would have had to book Vokes too.
@Wanderers82 said:
we were terrible in 1st half , netter in 2nd , MK are awful and we rely so heavily on vokes , mccleary was the poorest I have seen him play , but by the love of God, that ref was the worst I have ever seen ...just crap and small
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
That was frustrating I agree, but Vokes shot after the whistle which led to it, and this was not long after he booked Parrot (I think) for shooting after he had blown the whistle so he would have had to book Vokes too.
Surely a bit common sense from a ref to say to himself why would a team losing want to time waste..yes parrot was the correct call..can't remember the vokes incident
Last couple of games have been poor. However the next three games are against teams in the bottom half of the league. So there is room for optimism that we can get the season back on track before we face Wigan. Would like to see a new face or two come in over the next couple of days . Centre midfield and centre back?
@Wanderers82 said:
we were terrible in 1st half , netter in 2nd , MK are awful and we rely so heavily on vokes , mccleary was the poorest I have seen him play , but by the love of God, that ref was the worst I have ever seen ...just crap and small
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
Watching from the FA, the ref was talking to one of their players when the GK kicked the ball into the terrace so missed it completely.
@Wanderers82 said:
we were terrible in 1st half , netter in 2nd , MK are awful and we rely so heavily on vokes , mccleary was the poorest I have seen him play , but by the love of God, that ref was the worst I have ever seen ...just crap and small
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
Watching from the FA, the ref was talking to one of their players when the GK kicked the ball into the terrace so missed it completely.
He clearly never saw it. Genuinely interested to know if the assistant can bring it to the referee’s attention.
Before we hijack this thread with complaints about time wasting that was not why we lost. 45 minutes of dour football will haunt me for some time.
We look a one dimensional team at the moment. If the 2 flair players behind the striker aren’t firing then we are bang average.
MK Dons fans are a disgrace. Agree with some of the comments regarding the societal state of affairs right now. I’ve never known that whiff of aggro outside the ground as much as I have post-pandemic. It wasn’t a small minority chanting either - I’d say it was around 400 of them. Consistently.
MK bench did nothing - a decent bunch of humans would have gone over to ‘their’ fans and made some gestures. I think this angered Gaz as he was getting quite feisty at the time.
As usual we manage the post-match interviews with class.
I hope our lack of squad depth and reluctance to dip into the loan market doesn’t bite us. Anything out of the top 6 would be seen as a poor season after the fantastic platform we created in the championship.
Dom Gape. Still getting mentioned in the interviews but none of us are any wiser. I mean the guy is going to need several games to even get remotely near match fit. And that’s if he ever plays again….
The match day experience was a bit crap yesterday. Queues for food horrendous. Still only 3 people in woodlands kiosk selling overpriced Snickers on one hand held machine. I don’t get it ….
@Wanderers82 said:
we were terrible in 1st half , netter in 2nd , MK are awful and we rely so heavily on vokes , mccleary was the poorest I have seen him play , but by the love of God, that ref was the worst I have ever seen ...just crap and small
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
Watching from the FA, the ref was talking to one of their players when the GK kicked the ball into the terrace so missed it completely.
He clearly never saw it. Genuinely interested to know if the assistant can bring it to the referee’s attention.
Before we hijack this thread with complaints about time wasting that was not why we lost. 45 minutes of dour football will haunt me for some time.
It's worth a quick comment that they already had 3 players booked for time wasting and should have been 4 for the keeper.
Pretty poor work.
Bit ironic that we are all moaning about their time wasting. I did exactly the same and then thought well maybe it is a bit of our own medicine.
One thing that was very noticeable yesterday was just how easy it was for their centre backs to come out of defence with the ball without being closed down. At one point in the first half one bloke was just ambling forward with the ball as if he was taking the dog out for a walk.
Disappointed to say the least. However, when I think it through it was only about four seasons back that our 52/54 point League 1 survival target seemed a bit much, so can’t moan really.
As much as I hate to say it, MK did a really good job on us yesterday. What worries me is our tactics. When we were promoted from L1 two years ago we played 4-3-3. We continued with that system in the Championship, where initially we had a very poor run until we changed to playing
5-3-2 (or 3-5-2 when attacking if you like). Our form playing that way was sensational in the second-half of the season (top six form).
Having been relegated we stayed with 5-3-2 in L1. We’ve done well to get to 5th in the table but MK played through our midfield like a knife through butter yesterday. But don’t think this will be lost on other clubs. Our opponents’ scouts will have seen that & will be planning accordingly.
I thought we played better in the second-half going four at the back. Ultimately though our crossing was very disappointing (Darren Currie where are you?!!!). I’d prefer us to now stick with a very tight 4-4-2 for the immediate future with Vokes and Hanlan up front. That would give us an alternative attacking option up the middle rather than continually getting the ball wide where our final ball has been disappointing.
I detested everything about yesterday (as people have previously referred to). The beginning of February marks the start of the end-of-season run-in. The sides that put a few results together will be in real contention while others drop away. I hope yesterday was just “a bad day at the office”. It will be a different atmosphere v Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday week & hopefully we can get back to winning ways - but it won’t be easy.
With the time wasting, I think it's more about the reputation that we've managed to obtain, when so many other teams do the same. It always seems odd to me that Wycombe are singled out amongst League 1 teams. I mean, even at our most extreme I don't remember us having 3 players booked in game for time wasting. That's not a criticism of MK as such (plenty of other much more relevant things they can be criticised for!) just an observation that time wasting isn't a "Wycombe thing", there's plenty of sides who are least every bit as guilty.
@ReturnToSenda said:
We'll be fine. We are allowed a little rough patch. Things to fix, but that makes it a good time for a break.
Agreed, we would have to really implode to miss the playoffs (automatics were never really on given games in hand and squad depth of rivals). We regroup and go again.
But, personally, seeing as we do look slightly more solid when playing four at the back, I'd build on that and start like this v Shrewsbury (if all available):
Stocko
Grimmer
Stewart
Taf
Obita
Thompson
Scowen
Hanlan
Mehmeti
McCleary
Vokes
The way we play, there's not a lot of difference between a full-back and a wing-back - so Grimmer and JJ could largely still operate in the same way, but you provide a bit more width through a change of shape. Vital to keep the Obita-McCleary link-up, and then Hanlan gives you a more direct wide option on the other side (although they could swap flanks, plus there's the option of Horgan/Kaikai/Wheeler) in reserve.
Need to go a bit more attacking? Tweak to 4-3-3 by switching one of Thompson and Scowen out, bringing Wheeler in and pushing the wide players up to play more alongside Vokes.
We are still short of a combative midfielder, though, especially with Gape seemingly out long term.
We’ll be alright if we can get Scowen back for the run in but if not then we are pretty poor in midfield with Curtis running his socks off every game with no support.
Both Morecambe and MK absolutely overran our midfield so let’s not be ignorant of our deficiencies.
Having Gape unavailable for most of this season as definitely weakened our options and we need a few good recruits now.
I am with @A_Worboys that we should shift to a 4-4-2 but we also need that new blood. Though to be honest I can’t see us bringing in anyone and I hope we don’t regret it come the end of the season. At least we have the fireworks ?
@ReturnToSenda said:
We'll be fine. We are allowed a little rough patch. Things to fix, but that makes it a good time for a break.
Agreed, we would have to really implode to miss the playoffs (automatics were never really on given games in hand and squad depth of rivals). We regroup and go again.
Agree too but I do worry about our record after 'breaks'. It's not great is it?
Not sure where this MK Dons looked great narrative came from? I saw two struggling teams playing on a bobbly pitch in windy conditions and a nil nil draw was ruined by one mistake.
It's not about formations but about players. We missed Scowen and Vokes yesterday. Put them in to any formation and we'll be ok.
I am still really depressed about yesterdays events but I think I will be more positive quicker about our football team than about the toxic atmosphere in our ground.
@ReturnToSenda said:
But, personally, seeing as we do look slightly more solid when playing four at the back, I'd build on that and start like this v Shrewsbury (if all available):
Stocko
Grimmer
Stewart
Taf
Obita
Thompson
Scowen
Hanlan
Mehmeti
McCleary
Vokes
The way we play, there's not a lot of difference between a full-back and a wing-back - so Grimmer and JJ could largely still operate in the same way, but you provide a bit more width through a change of shape. Vital to keep the Obita-McCleary link-up, and then Hanlan gives you a more direct wide option on the other side (although they could swap flanks, plus there's the option of Horgan/Kaikai/Wheeler) in reverse.
Need to go a bit more attacking? Tweak to 4-3-3 by switching one of Thompson and Scowen out, bringing Wheeler in and pushing the wide players up to play more alongside Vokes.
We are still short of a combative midfielder, though, especially with Gape seemingly out long term.
Having said all that... Could we really afford to be without JJ (I guess Stewart would take the armband)? We're less reliant on his set-piece delivery than we have been in previous seasons, but still...
I thought that bar his shotstopping, Stockdale was particularly bad today. Distribution was SO slow, and 3 free kicks in our half were launched straight to their goalkeeper. Our crossing is so poor. Was begging for the ball to be whipped in on so many occasions but got a pea roller or a snow ball instead.
Observations (if not to state the obvious)
Wheeler battled but offered little.
Thompson had an off day.
Hanlan battled and never stopped trying.
Horgan offered very little again...time running out for him?
Vokes changed the game, was probably a mistake not to start him
we need a CB and a midfielder.
our touch/sharpness seemed off. Three times (McCleary, Obita, Horgan) let us down with poor touches or not being switched on. Twice at the back post where bad touches meant the ball rolling off the pitch instead of creating a goalscoring chance.
severe lack of creativity. We did not have one clear cut chance (apart from Stocko's launch up the pitch that happened to fall to Hanlan who fluffed his lines)
I will also never understand the Sunday league tactic of launching a throw in down the line. You are relying very heavily on luck that any flick on will land in your favour.
We need to dispense with the back 3. It’s a good option to have but teams have cottoned into to how to play against it now. JJ has been horribly exposed for several games recently which just wasn’t happening before. We look so open and vulnerable to players carrying the ball and look the absolute opposite of compact. A back 4 with 2 sitting midfielders centrally, Thompson and Scowen. If Gape remains out long term we need another player in this mould coming in. Wheeler is a lovely player but cannot ‘do a job’ here. He is just not that type of player. Ahead of that we can do anything as long as Vokes plays.
We need to get back to winning ways quickly as the teams below us may well quickly put us under pressure. Think 80 points is going to needed for play offs this year which is a very high tally indeed.
@thecatwwfc said:
I thought that bar his shotstopping, Stockdale was particularly bad today. Distribution was SO slow, and 3 free kicks in our half were launched straight to their goalkeeper. Our crossing is so poor. Was begging for the ball to be whipped in on so many occasions but got a pea roller or a snow ball instead.
Observations (if not to state the obvious)
Wheeler battled but offered little.
Thompson had an off day.
Hanlan battled and never stopped trying.
Horgan offered very little again...time running out for him?
Vokes changed the game, was probably a mistake not to start him
we need a CB and a midfielder.
our touch/sharpness seemed off. Three times (McCleary, Obita, Horgan) let us down with poor touches or not being switched on. Twice at the back post where bad touches meant the ball rolling off the pitch instead of creating a goalscoring chance.
severe lack of creativity. We did not have one clear cut chance (apart from Stocko's launch up the pitch that happened to fall to Hanlan who fluffed his lines)
I will also never understand the Sunday league tactic of launching a throw in down the line. You are relying very heavily on luck that any flick on will land in your favour.
To be honest I could excuse most of your comments on a strong blustery wind and a horrible bobbly pitch. Both teams struggled in the areas you mention.
‘Vokes changed the game’ yet ‘we did not have one clear cut chance’. Mmmmm
Enough has been said about the foitball, no more needed from me. However, I do want to say what a class act Adebayo Akinfenwa is, we will be a poorer club when he finally leaves our club. I still think we'll offer him an off field position at the end of his playing contract, so he should be around for years to come.
His interaction with the kids in the family stand at half time and after the game was something I think they'll remember. Also it was a really nice touch from him to go over to the group paraded round the pitch (no idea what for, the tannoy didn't work at all today) next to the goal at the home end.
Hopefully these are the things both he and they can look back on and remember with affection & pride from yesterday, not the totally unnecessary chanting from the MK idiots.
@thecatwwfc said:
I thought that bar his shotstopping, Stockdale was particularly bad today. Distribution was SO slow, and 3 free kicks in our half were launched straight to their goalkeeper. Our crossing is so poor. Was begging for the ball to be whipped in on so many occasions but got a pea roller or a snow ball instead.
Observations (if not to state the obvious)
Wheeler battled but offered little.
Thompson had an off day.
Hanlan battled and never stopped trying.
Horgan offered very little again...time running out for him?
Vokes changed the game, was probably a mistake not to start him
we need a CB and a midfielder.
our touch/sharpness seemed off. Three times (McCleary, Obita, Horgan) let us down with poor touches or not being switched on. Twice at the back post where bad touches meant the ball rolling off the pitch instead of creating a goalscoring chance.
severe lack of creativity. We did not have one clear cut chance (apart from Stocko's launch up the pitch that happened to fall to Hanlan who fluffed his lines)
I will also never understand the Sunday league tactic of launching a throw in down the line. You are relying very heavily on luck that any flick on will land in your favour.
To be honest I could excuse most of your comments on a strong blustery wind and a horrible bobbly pitch. Both teams struggled in the areas you mention.
‘Vokes changed the game’ yet ‘we did not have one clear cut chance’. Mmmmm
OK, perhaps mis-worded a little.
Vokes offered so much more than what he had in the first half. Still not enough but MK actually defended really well.
If the wind was that "strong and blustery", why did we resort to kicking the ball up in the air and hoping for the best? We rarely strung a sequence of 3 of 4 passes together. The one time we did in the second half, we produced quite a nice move.
@thecatwwfc said:
I thought that bar his shotstopping, Stockdale was particularly bad today. Distribution was SO slow, and 3 free kicks in our half were launched straight to their goalkeeper. Our crossing is so poor. Was begging for the ball to be whipped in on so many occasions but got a pea roller or a snow ball instead.
Observations (if not to state the obvious)
Wheeler battled but offered little.
Thompson had an off day.
Hanlan battled and never stopped trying.
Horgan offered very little again...time running out for him?
Vokes changed the game, was probably a mistake not to start him
we need a CB and a midfielder.
our touch/sharpness seemed off. Three times (McCleary, Obita, Horgan) let us down with poor touches or not being switched on. Twice at the back post where bad touches meant the ball rolling off the pitch instead of creating a goalscoring chance.
severe lack of creativity. We did not have one clear cut chance (apart from Stocko's launch up the pitch that happened to fall to Hanlan who fluffed his lines)
I will also never understand the Sunday league tactic of launching a throw in down the line. You are relying very heavily on luck that any flick on will land in your favour.
To be honest I could excuse most of your comments on a strong blustery wind and a horrible bobbly pitch. Both teams struggled in the areas you mention.
‘Vokes changed the game’ yet ‘we did not have one clear cut chance’. Mmmm
We improved with the introduction of Vokes but the guys were having an off day and nothing was changing it however we’re still basically a good solid unit so once GA and Dobbo get them back on the training ground they’ll turn it around
@thecatwwfc said:
I thought that bar his shotstopping, Stockdale was particularly bad today. Distribution was SO slow, and 3 free kicks in our half were launched straight to their goalkeeper. Our crossing is so poor. Was begging for the ball to be whipped in on so many occasions but got a pea roller or a snow ball instead.
Observations (if not to state the obvious)
Wheeler battled but offered little.
Thompson had an off day.
Hanlan battled and never stopped trying.
Horgan offered very little again...time running out for him?
Vokes changed the game, was probably a mistake not to start him
we need a CB and a midfielder.
our touch/sharpness seemed off. Three times (McCleary, Obita, Horgan) let us down with poor touches or not being switched on. Twice at the back post where bad touches meant the ball rolling off the pitch instead of creating a goalscoring chance.
severe lack of creativity. We did not have one clear cut chance (apart from Stocko's launch up the pitch that happened to fall to Hanlan who fluffed his lines)
I will also never understand the Sunday league tactic of launching a throw in down the line. You are relying very heavily on luck that any flick on will land in your favour.
To be honest I could excuse most of your comments on a strong blustery wind and a horrible bobbly pitch. Both teams struggled in the areas you mention.
‘Vokes changed the game’ yet ‘we did not have one clear cut chance’. Mmmmm
OK, perhaps mis-worded a little.
Vokes offered so much more than what he had in the first half. Still not enough but MK actually defended really well.
If the wind was that "strong and blustery", why did we resort to kicking the ball up in the air and hoping for the best? We rarely strung a sequence of 3 of 4 passes together. The one time we did in the second half, we produced quite a nice move.
Because the pitch bobbled and bounced all over the place. It was hard to keep it down and play. Neither side managed it with any effect all day. Some may argue that they are professional footballers and should do better but year after year the top surface of our pitch crumbles after under soil heating use and today was the first game of that sequence this season.
I think you’ll see more long ball going forward.
@robin said:
Oxford's Cameron Brannagan has scored his 4th penalty of the game as they lead 6-1 at Gillingham.
Quite something to be awarded 4 pens in a match let aline score 4..Ref must have received a brown envelope .
I’m sorry, but why “must” the ref have received a brown envelope?
am I the only one that see this comment as a symptom of the exact reason we get the same sort of throw away “banter” as calling football players a sex offender with absolute no substance behind it?
In the first minute the ball went out for a throw-in but the bounce as it went out of play was extremely high. If the pitch was bobbly, why wasn’t it heavily watered in the morning? Would have seemed a simple solution to the excessive bounce?
Comments
Agree..worse ref I have seen this season..how their gk didn't get booked for time wasting was a joke..blatantly kicked the ball behind the goal and ref did nothing.
That was frustrating I agree, but Vokes shot after the whistle which led to it, and this was not long after he booked Parrot (I think) for shooting after he had blown the whistle so he would have had to book Vokes too.
Surely a bit common sense from a ref to say to himself why would a team losing want to time waste..yes parrot was the correct call..can't remember the vokes incident
Last couple of games have been poor. However the next three games are against teams in the bottom half of the league. So there is room for optimism that we can get the season back on track before we face Wigan. Would like to see a new face or two come in over the next couple of days . Centre midfield and centre back?
Watching from the FA, the ref was talking to one of their players when the GK kicked the ball into the terrace so missed it completely.
He clearly never saw it. Genuinely interested to know if the assistant can bring it to the referee’s attention.
Before we hijack this thread with complaints about time wasting that was not why we lost. 45 minutes of dour football will haunt me for some time.
Poor performance but let’s see if we get some recruits in.
A few belated thoughts from yesterday:
We look a one dimensional team at the moment. If the 2 flair players behind the striker aren’t firing then we are bang average.
MK Dons fans are a disgrace. Agree with some of the comments regarding the societal state of affairs right now. I’ve never known that whiff of aggro outside the ground as much as I have post-pandemic. It wasn’t a small minority chanting either - I’d say it was around 400 of them. Consistently.
MK bench did nothing - a decent bunch of humans would have gone over to ‘their’ fans and made some gestures. I think this angered Gaz as he was getting quite feisty at the time.
As usual we manage the post-match interviews with class.
I hope our lack of squad depth and reluctance to dip into the loan market doesn’t bite us. Anything out of the top 6 would be seen as a poor season after the fantastic platform we created in the championship.
Dom Gape. Still getting mentioned in the interviews but none of us are any wiser. I mean the guy is going to need several games to even get remotely near match fit. And that’s if he ever plays again….
The match day experience was a bit crap yesterday. Queues for food horrendous. Still only 3 people in woodlands kiosk selling overpriced Snickers on one hand held machine. I don’t get it ….
Random thoughts but onwards and upwards eh?
It's worth a quick comment that they already had 3 players booked for time wasting and should have been 4 for the keeper.
Pretty poor work.
Bit ironic that we are all moaning about their time wasting. I did exactly the same and then thought well maybe it is a bit of our own medicine.
One thing that was very noticeable yesterday was just how easy it was for their centre backs to come out of defence with the ball without being closed down. At one point in the first half one bloke was just ambling forward with the ball as if he was taking the dog out for a walk.
Disappointed to say the least. However, when I think it through it was only about four seasons back that our 52/54 point League 1 survival target seemed a bit much, so can’t moan really.
As much as I hate to say it, MK did a really good job on us yesterday. What worries me is our tactics. When we were promoted from L1 two years ago we played 4-3-3. We continued with that system in the Championship, where initially we had a very poor run until we changed to playing
5-3-2 (or 3-5-2 when attacking if you like). Our form playing that way was sensational in the second-half of the season (top six form).
Having been relegated we stayed with 5-3-2 in L1. We’ve done well to get to 5th in the table but MK played through our midfield like a knife through butter yesterday. But don’t think this will be lost on other clubs. Our opponents’ scouts will have seen that & will be planning accordingly.
I thought we played better in the second-half going four at the back. Ultimately though our crossing was very disappointing (Darren Currie where are you?!!!). I’d prefer us to now stick with a very tight 4-4-2 for the immediate future with Vokes and Hanlan up front. That would give us an alternative attacking option up the middle rather than continually getting the ball wide where our final ball has been disappointing.
I detested everything about yesterday (as people have previously referred to). The beginning of February marks the start of the end-of-season run-in. The sides that put a few results together will be in real contention while others drop away. I hope yesterday was just “a bad day at the office”. It will be a different atmosphere v Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday week & hopefully we can get back to winning ways - but it won’t be easy.
With the time wasting, I think it's more about the reputation that we've managed to obtain, when so many other teams do the same. It always seems odd to me that Wycombe are singled out amongst League 1 teams. I mean, even at our most extreme I don't remember us having 3 players booked in game for time wasting. That's not a criticism of MK as such (plenty of other much more relevant things they can be criticised for!) just an observation that time wasting isn't a "Wycombe thing", there's plenty of sides who are least every bit as guilty.
We'll be fine. We are allowed a little rough patch. Things to fix, but that makes it a good time for a break.
Agreed, we would have to really implode to miss the playoffs (automatics were never really on given games in hand and squad depth of rivals). We regroup and go again.
But, personally, seeing as we do look slightly more solid when playing four at the back, I'd build on that and start like this v Shrewsbury (if all available):
Stocko
Grimmer
Stewart
Taf
Obita
Thompson
Scowen
Hanlan
Mehmeti
McCleary
Vokes
The way we play, there's not a lot of difference between a full-back and a wing-back - so Grimmer and JJ could largely still operate in the same way, but you provide a bit more width through a change of shape. Vital to keep the Obita-McCleary link-up, and then Hanlan gives you a more direct wide option on the other side (although they could swap flanks, plus there's the option of Horgan/Kaikai/Wheeler) in reserve.
Need to go a bit more attacking? Tweak to 4-3-3 by switching one of Thompson and Scowen out, bringing Wheeler in and pushing the wide players up to play more alongside Vokes.
We are still short of a combative midfielder, though, especially with Gape seemingly out long term.
We’ll be alright if we can get Scowen back for the run in but if not then we are pretty poor in midfield with Curtis running his socks off every game with no support.
Both Morecambe and MK absolutely overran our midfield so let’s not be ignorant of our deficiencies.
Having Gape unavailable for most of this season as definitely weakened our options and we need a few good recruits now.
I am with @A_Worboys that we should shift to a 4-4-2 but we also need that new blood. Though to be honest I can’t see us bringing in anyone and I hope we don’t regret it come the end of the season. At least we have the fireworks ?
Agree too but I do worry about our record after 'breaks'. It's not great is it?
Not sure where this MK Dons looked great narrative came from? I saw two struggling teams playing on a bobbly pitch in windy conditions and a nil nil draw was ruined by one mistake.
It's not about formations but about players. We missed Scowen and Vokes yesterday. Put them in to any formation and we'll be ok.
I am still really depressed about yesterdays events but I think I will be more positive quicker about our football team than about the toxic atmosphere in our ground.
Having said all that... Could we really afford to be without JJ (I guess Stewart would take the armband)? We're less reliant on his set-piece delivery than we have been in previous seasons, but still...
I thought that bar his shotstopping, Stockdale was particularly bad today. Distribution was SO slow, and 3 free kicks in our half were launched straight to their goalkeeper. Our crossing is so poor. Was begging for the ball to be whipped in on so many occasions but got a pea roller or a snow ball instead.
Observations (if not to state the obvious)
I will also never understand the Sunday league tactic of launching a throw in down the line. You are relying very heavily on luck that any flick on will land in your favour.
The accusations about Mason Greenwood really ought to press home how sickeningly inappropriate 'that chant' is. Grim - really, really grim.
We need to dispense with the back 3. It’s a good option to have but teams have cottoned into to how to play against it now. JJ has been horribly exposed for several games recently which just wasn’t happening before. We look so open and vulnerable to players carrying the ball and look the absolute opposite of compact. A back 4 with 2 sitting midfielders centrally, Thompson and Scowen. If Gape remains out long term we need another player in this mould coming in. Wheeler is a lovely player but cannot ‘do a job’ here. He is just not that type of player. Ahead of that we can do anything as long as Vokes plays.
We need to get back to winning ways quickly as the teams below us may well quickly put us under pressure. Think 80 points is going to needed for play offs this year which is a very high tally indeed.
To be honest I could excuse most of your comments on a strong blustery wind and a horrible bobbly pitch. Both teams struggled in the areas you mention.
‘Vokes changed the game’ yet ‘we did not have one clear cut chance’. Mmmmm
Enough has been said about the foitball, no more needed from me. However, I do want to say what a class act Adebayo Akinfenwa is, we will be a poorer club when he finally leaves our club. I still think we'll offer him an off field position at the end of his playing contract, so he should be around for years to come.
His interaction with the kids in the family stand at half time and after the game was something I think they'll remember. Also it was a really nice touch from him to go over to the group paraded round the pitch (no idea what for, the tannoy didn't work at all today) next to the goal at the home end.
Hopefully these are the things both he and they can look back on and remember with affection & pride from yesterday, not the totally unnecessary chanting from the MK idiots.
Bayo we love you.
OK, perhaps mis-worded a little.
Vokes offered so much more than what he had in the first half. Still not enough but MK actually defended really well.
If the wind was that "strong and blustery", why did we resort to kicking the ball up in the air and hoping for the best? We rarely strung a sequence of 3 of 4 passes together. The one time we did in the second half, we produced quite a nice move.
We improved with the introduction of Vokes but the guys were having an off day and nothing was changing it however we’re still basically a good solid unit so once GA and Dobbo get them back on the training ground they’ll turn it around
Because the pitch bobbled and bounced all over the place. It was hard to keep it down and play. Neither side managed it with any effect all day. Some may argue that they are professional footballers and should do better but year after year the top surface of our pitch crumbles after under soil heating use and today was the first game of that sequence this season.
I think you’ll see more long ball going forward.
I’m sorry, but why “must” the ref have received a brown envelope?
am I the only one that see this comment as a symptom of the exact reason we get the same sort of throw away “banter” as calling football players a sex offender with absolute no substance behind it?
You’ve essentially said the ref must be corrupt.
In the first minute the ball went out for a throw-in but the bounce as it went out of play was extremely high. If the pitch was bobbly, why wasn’t it heavily watered in the morning? Would have seemed a simple solution to the excessive bounce?