December Musing

So the month of Christmas was upon us and the month when the League table gives a good idea of what to expect ..or so some say.

I always think you get a good idea but a lot can change with the transfers in and out in January and the winter months are notorious for injuries not to mention the suspensions kick in so a squad with depth and quality is the squad that will seriously challenge for the Auto spots and the play off spots as well. I think we have a good if not smallish squad and still think we will make the play offs and the lottery that the play offs are. I don't think we have enough to make the Automatics unless the Sheffield's and Charlton badly mess up and I still think as one of the longest serving teams in this division Huddersfield will finally if not get out by Auto make the play off final whether we play them or not remains to be seen I just have that feeling we are going to start next season with the stadium work complete in the same league and like the season we got promoted have a great season in our sort of new improved ground or maybe I am just being too romantic!

First game of the month saw the trip to Underhill and the FA Cup game against Barnet we played the familiar 4-2-3-1 formation although it always looks like 4-5-1 to me but hey ho and the team lined up Martin , Smith, Flanagan, MacKenzie, Lewington , S Williams, Potter , Balanta, Ibehre, Bowditch; MacDonald with Doumbe, O'Shea, G Williams, Alli on the bench Robbo put out a strong team and didn't give the young George Williams another chance of glory ,Martin suffered a dead leg and was replaced by Mcloughlin on thirty four minutes Chicksen came on for Potter at eighty one and Powell came on for MacDonald on eighty six and promptly scored scored two minutes later and we progressed to the third round of the FA cup with relative ease and our old favourite Izale even managed to put one past our Irish under 21 keeper.

The day after the game the draw for the third round was made and we learnt we were to play Queens Park Rangers at Stadiummk I guess the reaction was a bit mixed with some saying we never get a big club and some happy it was another Prem club ,there were some who said an away draw would have been better and some like me who said if we keep the price down we could make potentially more from a home draw, personally I was pretty happy with the draw knowing there are a few QPR fans in MK and that it will attract the interest of the nuetrals and the occasional fan. It will be the first time we have got to the third Round since the 2009/10 season when the then Premier League Burnley beat us at stadiummk.

The tie is due to take place on the weekend of January 7th to 8th meaning our away game at Stevenage has been postponed with a new date yet to be announced so another bloody Tuesday night game it is then ! the prices were later confirmed as starting at twenty pounds with two pound discount for ST holders which was okay I thought to watch a Prem team in the third round of the most famous competition of all.

Martin and Gleeson were absent from training on the Monday after Barnet obviously Martin was recovering from his dead leg but the Gleeson absence was a mystery and lead myself and another fan present to speculate and let our imagination run riot ! I spoke to Karl and he was happy with the QPR draw and thought it would be a good test in fact we had a good chat before he joined in with the training funnily enough about fans reaction to Barnet and how we are playing also what the fans would think if certain things happened !! and I get the impression when we speak he hopes the fans are happy with him and that what we think means a lot to him.

Karl and Jabo were nominated for npower L1 manager and player of the month awards but despite us winning three and being unbeaten we were pipped by Charlton but as our blip started after he won the last one I wasnt too bothered.

On the Thursday before the Tranmere game I saw the second appearance this season of the guest coach Ian Wright (he was here a week later for his third appearance)and his meaty minder at Woughton he actualy did a lot more this time as he arrived before the players and took part in the training game and he stayed back to coach some of the players at shooting and pens although funnily enough Charlie Mac wasnt one I guess they figure his scoring record is good enough and he doesn't need it..well most of his are in the box !!

On Saturday it was the long haul to Tranmere for the team and travelling fans, the team lined up Martin, Smith, MacKenzie, Beevers, Lewington (c)in defence with the midfield of S. Williams, Potter, Chadwick, with the three forwards Ibehre, Bowditch, MacDonald in whatever position they go in in a 4-3-2-1 formation lol the bench saw a return for Gleeson Doumbe Balanta Powell and Flanagan with McLoughlin also back on the strong looking bench. I did think that Gleeson on the bench was a bit of a surprise as if he wants to go Id have thought he would be in the shop window for the sales as it were ! but then thinking about it if he is playing badly we might not sell him come January and we'd be left with an unhappy player till June when he goes he for nothing.

The mystery deepened as Gleeson was named as a sub but then O'Shea took his place and the rumour was Gleeson had a strop about being on the bench, reading various tweets Id wished I could say what I had heard in the week but obviously I couldn't so had to wait till someone else broke the news most of you had probably guessed. The result was a good away win taking us up to third but the stroppy midfielder took up a fair share of the after match discussion, the goals came again from Jabo the on fire striker who seems to be having the best season ever and the natural successor to Gleeson should he leave in January Shaun Williams got on the score sheet as well.

The game against Preston saw Williams co-commentate on three counties and we missed him I thought, with Potter and Gleeson back from the mysterious foot injury seeming to have trouble getting their passes to a fellow Dons player.

But overall I thought Preston were the better team with no manager and the hatchet man Risdale looking to make savings and no doubt get rid of the surplus to requirements players the talented Coutts as captain and his team were playing for their jobs.The towering 6'5 McCoumbe in defence bullying our players off the ball in a game we never really got into despite the superior possession figures, I thought we just looked the second best team on the day and we lost at home,it was going to happen sometime Id just thought it might be to a team above us.

The two Sheffield's were both now above us and I think they will take some shifting I still think Charlton will wobble and Huddersfield to me are the team we need to be matching result wise to stay in the pack Brentford continue to be my surprise package for a play off spot as I have thought they would be all season and will be team that could take our fifth spot come end of season but we cant discount Stevenage who have quietly sneaked up the table while we all watched the Sheffield's and Huddersfield.

Karl and John both had their contracts.. well tarted up a bit ( as they had already extended them earlier in the season )and I guess it just meant they got a pay rise and some better clauses put in which hopefully means we get good compensation should one or both get poached the comments Karl has made recently about one day leaving (lately after the Preston manager went)makes me think we as a club are covering such eventualality when or if it does happen..who knows!

Looking at the home attendance's at the roughly half way point of eleven games I saw we are a thousand up on last season and this despite the number of away fans travelling being down, the natural conclusion is the home fans figure is getting back toward the nine thousand mark baring in mind the figure picks up later in season, at the moment it stands at 8246 average gate if worked out on total attendance this season of 90714 against last seasons 89710.

While I was in a nerdy mood I looked at where our goals have come from after hearing we had scored most goals in all four leagues and was surprised to see we don't have one player in the league list Rochdale's Ashley Grimes was there with eight goals so I had a look at our OS stats and saw the highest scorers are Jabo and Charlie Mac on seven with Bowditch on six even Lewie chipped in with same amount as Balanta on four and I thought what if we had a Jordan Rhodes on fifteen or Bradley W-P on fourteen in the side ! even Preston's Neil Mellor had nine.. where would we be now in the league with a twenty goal a season player.

Many of us were disappointed to learn the kick off time for the Orient game had been moved to 1pm meaning the official coaches would be leaving at 9.30am on Boxing day a full half hour before they would leave for Brentford and three and a half hours before the match started, meaning many fans would have to get up at eight or eight thirty the day after Christmas to make the trip and a lot were put off.Due to the industrial action by transport workers making your own way there was problematic and the only choice apart from the official coach was to drive down yourself.

On Monday the 19th we played a closed door match with Millwall at the Stadium with the pitch at Woughton being too wet and boggy the result was 3-0 to us with Charlie Collins opening the scoring minutes later Adam Chicksen doubled the lead curling his shot to the left of the keeper, a handball inside the area gave Shaun Williams the chance to score from the spot which he duly did making the score three nil in the first half. The second half saw no goals but it was a good test for the players ahead of the Christmas fixtures and a chance for the fringe players to show what they were made of Lewis Guy was back from his loan at Oxford which surprised me as I thought he'd stay till end of season with McNamee and O'Shea I really cant see he will be needed unless of course Balanta is going back to QPR. The starting eleven were McLoughlin, Ivey-Ward, Flanagan, Kouo-Doumbe, Chicksen, Guy, Williams, Powell, Balanta, O'Shea,Collins

In other news I was surprised to see mkdons online shut down most of you will have read the blog there so not sure how many of you have found this months offering I know from email recieved on Christmas eve that the owner has been asked to develop the MKDSA site and so has rejoined the SA to do so and has closed the other site which is a shame as it was an independent site I will put a link up on twitter @Gunnerdon and http://www.thezonemk.co.uk/phpbb3/viewforum.php?f=106 for the blog and see how it goes.

I had only received a couple of stats for the blog from mkdons online admin but it got 700 hits one month and the last figure I got was for the first two days of October where it had already got 460 plus and that was the last stat I got. For the uncut version I have had 450 plus hits on top of the mkdons online figure and that is where any future blogs will be found so excuse the typo's and bad grammar as its uncut. When I started doing the blog on the old mkdons forum I said Id be happy if fifty/hundred people read it so to be getting nearer a thousand than a hundred is staggering and thank you to everyone who reads the blog and let your friends know lol.

As Christmas approached the boss Karl Robinson along with goalkeeping coach Paul Heald captain Dean Lewington and a number of other players took bags full of presents on behalf of the Club to children at MK Hospital, the whole squad put their hands in their pockets to give gifts for the visit as well an outdoor playhouse for the ward.Awadh Ahmed, Daniel Powell and David Martin were among the other players who delivered Christmas gifts to the Children's Ward.

We also heard that Stadiummk will welcome back the Saints on Saturday 21st January, while we are away to Notts County so another full house that day Id imagine, saying that the sales of QPR tickets are going well with a couple of weeks to go which means the League 1 away fixture at Stevenage has been rescheduled for Tuesday 24th January kick-off 7.45pm which wont be as well attended I fear, I spoke to Karl and he reckoned we would get fifteen thousand at the QPR game.

On Boxing day we played Leyton Orient we lined up in our familiar 4-2-3-1 of Martin, A Smith, MacKenzie, Kouo-Doumbe , Lewington (c), Potter, Gleeson; Chadwick), Ibehre, Bowditch , MacDonald . After what some called a slow start( but was probably more down to a cautious respect of the O's who have shown some form of late) we opened the scoring with a Bowditch goal after a lovely cross from Adam Smith before half time and then there was only one team in it. Smith's screamer for the second was watched into the net by the 362 Dons fans who found a way round the transport strike and Charlie Mac got the third a tap in after a strike from Lewie was saved , having a bit of a soft spot for Orient I wont gloat too much and sometimes the opposition view is a good a way to sum up the game and I found a lovely combination of wit and honesty on another blog

http://www.leyton-orient-blog.blogspot.com/2011/12/leyton-orient-0-mk-dons-3-261211.html

To quote: it seemed apparent that the MK Dons squad had spent Christmas Day drinking protein shakes, doing one-handed press-ups and firing themselves up by watching the famous Battle of Agincourt speech from Henry V. The Orient team, meanwhile, had clearly passed the time with their heads stuck down a bumper-sized box of Quality Street while plumped on the sofa sniggering, burping and farting their way through Home Alone.Goal times were: Bowditch 37, A Smith 57, MacDonald 63 the attendance was 4,162 (362 Dons).

Our next game and the final one of the month was at Brentford and with the loan spells of Beevers and Balanta about to finish we heard talk of Karl wanting to keep both, personally I would not have been too sorry to see the back of Balanta who has not been the same this season and Id have been quite happy to see O'Shea or even the in form McNamee currently at Wycombe given a chance but I think we should not leave ourselves short of players and if both players go I would like to see Karl get cover and keep the squad about the same size.

I wouldn't even mind another Prem rising star in the Adam Smith type mould or a young hungry player like Balanta was last season. Beevers looked a cert to be called back to his parent club of Sheffield Wednesday and Megson cant be criticised too much for not helping a rival for promotion keep one of his players at the business end of the season.

As I alluded to earlier the In's and outs of January can be make or break time for any club and a club like ours which is watching the wage bill expenditure has to get the balance right.

And so the the last game of the year was upon us and there it was no wait and suss the opposition out we came flying out of the starting blocks like a team possessed and scored two goals in less than ten minutes and showed total domination the whole of the first half with Potter and Balanta getting the early goals. Not to be outdone on his former manor Charlie MacDonald did what past players often do and scored against his former club just before half time.

The second half again saw the Dons start the brighter of the two teams but with twenty minutes left the Bee's got a goal back against the run of play but there was worse to come when a penalty was given against us for handball and from being three nil up we were looking to save the three points. But even worse was to come as we entered injury time Legge scored after a free kick and Brentford had pulled off a remarkable comeback , bright side for me was that Id have been happy with a draw before the game but to lose a three goal advantage does hurt and to get the Auto spots I think you just cant do that and we wont make them because we are just not that good in defence, we also seem to lack concentration at key times against the better teams.

In true foot in mouth fashion Gleeson and Balanta had better games first half making me wish Id just not mentioned them this month and I'm sure if Balanta does go back to QPR his past non performances will be forgotten and everyone will just remember the first half at Brentford !

But Gleeson nearly got himself sent off for not being able to shut up after a foul and booking and Balanta faded as the game went on so perhaps I did call it right.

Tthe team lined up- Martin, Smith, Doumbe, MacKenzie, Lewington, Potter, Gleeson, Ibhere, Bowditch, Balanta; MacDonald the subs were:- McLoughlin, Williams, Flanagan, Powell, O'Shea

The attendance was 5,397 with a disputable 420 Dons fans both teirs looked pretty full according to most there.

And the Forrester who came on as a sub for Brentford was indeed our own academy lad Remy's brother so a dilemma that day for our young academy player.

We have Smith suspended for Monday and I wondered if Flanagan or Williams will start with Doumbe going to right back or whether Karl will keep the Centre backs the same and play someone else at right back, Baldock would be good!
Happy New Year to everyone and hope you all had a great Christmas.
COYD

November Musing Uncut

So the month started with the news we are to play Nantwich on Saturday 12th November, and the news was greeted with talk not of the opposition but the price of the game.
Both clubs had agreed the prices were to be £15 for Adults £4 for Under-18s and £11 for Over-65s in all areas except club red where it was £20. There was also rather oddly no under 7's free tickets for this game which made the whole day quite an expensive one for the family considering it was a first round FA Cup match. As both clubs had agreed and Nantwich get a cut I guess they must have thought the folk of MK turn out for the cup matches in their numbers most of us thought a tenner would have been the right price for this stage of the competition.I was told by someone Id better not mention that although it was agreed by both clubs it was Nantwich that asked for the higher price in fact I was told they had asked for it to be sixteen Pounds ! which would make sense if they thought it was going to be a big crowd but more on that later.
Amongst those training the day before the Rochdale game were David Thompson ex Liverpool,Coventry, Blackburn, Wigan, Portsmouth and Bolton player who had retired at thirty with chronic cartlidge knee injury three years ago but has now been told by his Doctor he can play Karl told me he was going to give him a game (closed door)and that Thompson had said he'd play for nothing as he'd had ten years in the Premiership and just wanted to play again although I thought he would probably be on a small wage if he did play David said he hadn't officially retired when I asked him if he was officially retired but he didn't really seem to keen to talk, Karl did joke to him about not being asked for his autograph for a while when one of the fans asked for it which I did think was quite funny( he played later in the month for the first half against Coventry).

The first game of the month was against Rochdale and designated as Armed Forces Day and we had our very own Mark Smith, a Lance Sergeant with the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards with us to present the match ball to the team Mark has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia. Mark was injured after being shot in the arm and the leg and as a result Mark had his right leg amputated. Mark has the Dons crest on his forearm and I'm sure some of you will know him. Mark presented the match ball on Saturday on his new prosthetic leg. I saw Mark arrive and he looked well and also seemed to be walking well on his new leg and when he presented the match day ball and I guess most of us had a lump in our throats watching him walk out.

The game was a convincing three one win and I like many thought Martin had made the howler to end all howlers when he seemed to just let the free kick drop over his head into the net but with the benefit of the replay's on SSN and Football league show I think it was more a case of a very good free kick fooling him, some behind the goal seemed to think it was going over as well but I still think it has to be put down as keeper error in the Seaman style of balls no one thought were going in , as it turned out I think it probably gave us the push we needed and we played well as a team and the score reflected the match overall I even thought Dale played some nice Football in midfield and just need to tighten their defence and get a striker in come January to capitalise on the capable midfield certainly not the worse team I have seen this season.
John took mainly fringe and academy players for the first training session I saw on the Tuesday with exception of Gleeson there were no first team players there, also training with the squad was Stuart Searle who has been injured and is here to get back to full fitness for Chelmsford as he still lives in Milton Keynes which was handy as Ian was on International duty and David only had Paul Heald to keep him company also called up for International duty were Gary Mac and Adam Smith although Gary only made the bench, as an aside Stuart is now fit and back in goal for fourth place Chelmsford and was still training with us as Chelmsford only train twice a week.

Later in the week saw the guest coach and former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright join the team he joined the players for a game and hopefully imparted some of his goalscoring wisdom on our strikers I along with a couple of other fans got to get a picture and say hello I even got a picture of his car a Land Rover Overfinch for those petrol heads interested ! not sure whether he was or wasnt at Brammall Lane but I have not seen him since.

We also heard another four academy players have been given squad numbers ahead of the FA Cup game against Nantwich Town they were seventeen-year-old Leon Lobjoit, 16-year-old George Williams and 15-year-olds Dele Alli and Brendan Galloway they have all been registered with first team numbers with the Football League and Football Association but as I noticed not the academy golden child Seyi Ojo who I understand is looking at four Premiership clubs before deciding which one to join. I spoke to Brendan Galloway and said congratulations on his squad number and wished him well for the game although I did wonder why Remy Forrester wasn't given a number as he really stood out to me in the academy games I have seen.
Full-back Lobjoit will wear 34, young striker Williams (not to be confused with player of same name who has left academy) has been given the 35 shirt while midfielders Alli number 36 and Galloway 37 all four were expected to be on the bench for Karl's 18-man squad for Saturday.
The game as a lot of us thought it would be was a comfortable win and no FA upset although Nantwich held on for twenty seven minutes and went into half time just two down the part timers were never really going to get anything from the game and we cruised through to the next round with goals from Kouo-Doumbe on 27minutes, Bowditch 30 and 54 Powell on 66 ,the back from injury O'Shea on 76 and raising a big cheer on the day young George Williams on 89. George becomes the Dons youngest ever goalscorer the crowd wasn't as bad as some had forecast with 3354 home fans and an impressive 756 away fans made the trip for what was a big day for their club, the only good thing about the smaller crowds I find at SMK is the atmosphere is often better than when we get the bigger gates which is very odd but I still think we would have had a lot more fans had it been made a tenner maybe all our season ticket holders would have come!
Before the game Karl was fuming after what has been called rogue scouts breached FA rules by trying to tap up some of our academy lads at the game at Woughton. Karl was reported to be preparing to make an official complaint to the FA on the Monday morning having recorded a number of agents making illegal approaches to youth players after the game.We have one of the most highly rated academies certainly outside of the Premiership and I think I voiced my worries in a previous blog and predicted this would happen with the new ruling the FA has put in place , one that helps the Prem clubs pick up future talent for next to nothing,the game against Bristol Rovers saw us lose 0-3 .

The draw for the second round of the FA cup saw us pitted against Barnet at Barnet a ground we have been to a few times and not a fixture that gets the heart pumping but a winnable game that could lead to that big day out at a prem club or a good pay day at home.
With a closed door match against Coventry on the 15th the players that wouldn't be playing trained earlier than usual so Joe the groundsman could get the pitch ready for the afternoon game I spoke to Karl before the game and he said he was putting out a strong team with John in charge the game ended 2-2 I asked Karl what he thought and he said he'd seen better any of you old enough to remember will know Steven "Oggy" Ogrizovic he was born in Mansfield and achieved fame during his 16 years at Coventry City (1984 to 2000)for the record of 601 appearances as a player in all competitions and he played in the winning FA Cup team of 1987 and he was here with the Coventry entourage.

Ahead of the Colchester game the players trained in the dome (or the bubble take your pick) at Woughton where to my untrained eye they seemed to be concentrating on fast close quarter passing and keeping the fitness levels up with fast paced short matches.The team travelled on the Friday for the relatively short journey of just over one hundred miles when I asked Karl about this he said it was because they had been caught before in traffic and he wanted to train before the game rather than sit in traffic and have to get off the coach and play but I also suspect it was because we have a bit more money available following news of the Stadium:mk retail development plans, of course another reason might be the sale to Liverpool of Seyi Ojo who completed his move to join Liverpool Academy on the Friday the 14-year-old midfielder who has been here since he was ten and has been capped twice at England Under-16 level this was during their recent Victory Shield campaign was thought to have gone for in the region of two million but that's unconfirmed and was the figure mentioned for the earlier bid of Chelsea.
As we know the Colchester game was a resounding 5-1 win but it wasn't all one way traffic in the first half, we were lucky to go into half time ahead after being one nil down Martin made some good saves tipping one over and chesting one away at what were crucial times .The second half however saw a totally dominant display, with the goal fest we were expecting to see at Walsall the away game before, sadly all the teams above us won their games but a gap is opening below and all we can do is win the games we play and hope those above have a wobble. The U's manager John Ward said after the game the best signing Robbo has made is John Gorman and I tend to agree after watching the work he puts in at the training ground always the first to leave and last to go and I think he and the other coaching staff must get really pissed off when they read Fowler is still here or Wrighty is employed as a coach as if the odd day Fowler did and the one day Wrighty was here has turned us into another team ..when from my perspective we have just done what we have threatened to do all season re the Nantwich and Colchester games.

On the Tuesday before the Wycombe derby we played a friendly against Watford another of those behind closed door games in a field and there was literaly a man and his dog among the crowd ! We played what I guess is our reserve side bar two or three the result was a 3-1 win for the Dons with Watfords goal being a gift from McLoughlin who seemed to catch the ball and drop it in his net it may not have been that bad but I was as far away as I could be at far end of pitch(well actually in clubhouse)but it looked an easy save.

Bowditch got the first and MacKenzie the second with his head ,the third was a Bowditch free kick Watford had a mix of first year pro's and reserves with a couple of first teamers returning from injury .We were the better team and a blatant handball was not seen and a couple of chances missed otherwise it would have been five or six Balanta and Guy played well as did Baldock at right back who told me after the game he liked playing in that position, in fact no player had a bad game and we looked very comfortable on the ball John was in charge although Karl was there with the Watford manager Sean Dyche as Ive said before I'm awful at match reports so that's as good as it gets from me and I have only attempted it as I haven't read about the game elsewhere .

Paul Heald put his gloves back on Friday in aid of charity at Newport Pagnall FC to raise funds Robbo also had a bit of a run out and scored one as well Peter Leven was also there watching( and probably wishing he was still a part of the Dons looking at Oxfords recent form but he got the signing on fee and same wage so perhaps he just likes League Two) and over £1200 was raised for the worthy cause I spoke to Paul before the Wycombe game and he was still aching.

Friday was a busy day as the last day of loan window closed we heard Lewis Guy has rejoined Oxford on loan and was set to go straight into the side winger Anthony McNamee has joined our Buckinghamshire rivals Wycombe Wanderers till January 7th and Charlie Collins went to Kettering Town on loan for about three hours then was sent back as Kettering have a transfer embargo put on them which is bad news all round.

Which brings me neatly to the Wycombe game and memories of the away day when we drew with nine men, we haven't seen that much of Wycombe as they yo yo between L1 and L2 John Gorman has a connection with Wycombe as a former manager but apart from that there is not a lot of love in the air when we meet so I was looking forward to the game(well I look forward to every game but ..)and hopefully a good sound drubbing of our Bucks rivals but it was far from that and we were lucky to come away with all three points again Martin made two good saves that probably saved the three points but he still worries me at times.
The defence looked much weaker without the young Smith and Im glad he is here till end of the season Flanagan showed his age and inexperience with some bad decisions but Beevers across goal pass to him that resulted in a Wycombe goal was worse than anything Tom did,Doumbe again showed us why he is not first choice right back Lewie probably pick of defence but not his best game. Gleeson still nowhere near his best and still undisciplined Chadders ran his socks off as usual Potter showing signs of wear and tear Charlie did everything but score Bowditch looked class Jabo my MOM for his sheer work rate and enthusiasm deserved the sponsors award.I'll have some pictures up on http://gdmonthlymusingsuncut.blogspot.com/ later in the week so keep checking, the next game is Barnet where all the seats are sold out so its standing room only.
COYD