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| I bloody love Sullay I do. |
MK Dons. It still doesn't sound right. Especially when you add 'FC' on the end. They're surely an ice hockey team or something. I can't think of a side I'm less excited about playing. I'd rather be facing Guisely, Heybridge Swifts, Billingham flippin' Synthonia than this lot. As Jose would say say it's a question of ''eritage' 'Football ''eritage.'
This isn't snobbery, I like the ever changing nature of the pyramid. I like that Crawley or Harrogate are playing against Bolton Wanderers but with MK Dons it's not like they fought there way up to be where they are. There's no footballing backstory at all, just a tale of one club hollowed out to form another.
Still, what would Star Wars be without Darth Vader? We can't all be paragons of virtue and flag bearers for purity - narrative depends on conflict after all.
I do wonder who supports them. I wonder what it's like to do so. You can feel the years of football in the air at Bloomfield, even though the old ground is long gone, there's something intangible and timeless about it, ghosts of yesteryear swirl about the pitch dribbling mazily and heading leather balls whilst woodbine smoking spirits swing rattles in the stands and throw their caps in the air...
I don't really know how it would feel to support a club that just appeared one day, as if by magic, half way up the football league. Do they actually have anyone who believes in the 'Dons' bit of their name and still talks about when 'we' won the cup?
Who knows? (well, I suppose MK Dons fans do!) but they did us good and proper last year and I got in a proper internal strop at the end of the game watching the away fans celebrate wildly and us muttering, shaking heads and bemoaning our tangerine burden. I rewatch the highlights and we did at least manage to have some efforts that nearly brought us goals. I can't remember us nearly scoring since Yates smacked a post, two or three games back.
What I want today is a fearless showing. We've looked too robotic, disinclined to gamble on taking on a man or trying to thread a pass. That can't be compatible with the way we say we want to play. You can play that way if you're putting a couple of big muscular lads up front and then hitting teams on the break but we're not. Therefore we need to be brave. It's not an option to play safe.
I want us to go toe to toe with them and back ourselves to beat them. Critch has gone for both Woodburn, who I thought was a little occasional patch of sunshine against the grey shirts of Charlton and glory be, Sullay starts. That should make us a bit more inventive and instinctive up front. Sadly the Goal Machine is on the bench so the question is, can Jerry Yates take the step up from running around a lot like Chris Long, to being the idol he looked a bit like he could be in preseason. He needs a goal like there's no apt simile to describe. A goal could change his season completely. Mobility in the front line could change our fortunes totally and at least in theory, this is a mobile attacking line up.
Ethan Robson is dropped to the bench where he'll sit alongside the Iceman/Viking/player I'm most likely to need to spellcheck. Maybe he's knackered after he and Williams slogged their hearts out in a thankless task of running a two man midfield against Charlton. Anyway, for all the conjecture about tactics and positions, the non negotiable is we need to show more intent going forward. That's all I want to see.
My first though is that why are CJ and Kaikai on the wrong sides?
Our first foray comes from lovely work from Ballard who is excellent again all game, he wins the ball, does a slow motion Cruyff turn and pings an outside of the foot pass to Hamilton. CJ shows a tenacious attitude to out muscle his full back and puts a decent low ball in that falls between Woodburn and Yates and is deflected back to their keeper.
MK Dons look like us. Maybe their coach has a certificate too? There's lots of passing in their own half but not much threat until some classic Demi Mitchell defending leads to a corner which in turn leads to an unconvincing punch from Maxwell but we scramble it away.
Yates flicks, and Woodburn is bundled down. Sullay stands over it. He seems to be wearing longer shorts than everyone else. He belts it over the bar. He'll get one of those sooner or later if we let him keep taking them.
MK Dons continue to do a very passable impression of us as Woodburn robs possession after a pass out from the back and is bundled to the ground again. Ward is over the free kick and everyone lines up on the edge. Williams gets out first and it looks a chance. The offside flag and the fact Williams heads it somewhere into the south stand both dampen the excitement that sparks for a second.
20 minutes gone and it's scrappy as hell. I'm just about to write about this being the moment to rotate the front three when Mark Atkins makes the same point. Woodburn then Williams at least try some first time passing but neither of them are accurate.
Mitchell is such a contrasting player. He's looked clumsy in possession and weak at the back but it's his beautiful ball that sets Hamilton free to race away, he crosses, it's blocked, he crosses again and the keeper plucks it out the air unchallenged. I'm not sure if it's the quality of the crossing or the instinct of the forwards that's to blame for the fact we never seem to threaten from wide positions.
First moment of class from Sullay is a delicious ball that puts Woodburn in acres of space, it's literally perfection, timed to the nanosecond for Woodburn's stride pattern. The Liverpool man slides it across the box - it's not the perfect ball but at the same time it looks like the forwards just watch it. I watch Sullay for a few minutes. He's wins a couple of challenges, he can't quite wriggle though after one and we can't quite release anyone after he he offloads the second one. He's doing ok. He's got a touch to die for sometimes. I bloody love Sullay.
CJ on the other hand isn't right at all. He doesn't look fit. He's pointless if he isn't fit. I wonder why we're not making a change.
MK Dons entire threat is coming from free kicks and corners. They're racking up though and and whilst most are dealt with fairly comfortably, Maxwell has to back pedal and scoop an inswinging ball away, before Marvin has to stoop at the near post and head something that looks goal bound out for another set piece.
Pool have a little move in the corner that basically sums up what's wrong. No one really moves for each other. Yates back heels to no one. The move is over. We string together a load of passes and Williams floats a crossfield pass. Hamilton is offside. The move is over.
We've had no shots. Woodburn sends Kaikai, the keeper sweeps. I'm not sure if Sullay had a choice whether to pull out at the last minute or not. Hamilton finds a bit of pace and races forward and pulls it pack, again into the gap between the two forwards. I must have seen that exact ball 10 or 15 times this season. Sullay gets away again and this time puts the first genuinely decent ball across in the game. Again, Yates doesn't attack it and they are able to slide in and get it out for a corner. We've still had no shots.
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This has looked in all honesty like two poor sides. I don't understand, given the fact we've got options on the bench, a clearly unhappy Hamilton is trudging up and down the left wing. Is he fit? He doesn't look it. It's bottom half football without a question. It's been scrappy without being passionate. Sullay's had a couple of moments, Woodburn has looked awake to possibilities if unable to exploit them but it's another 45 minutes without a shot. That's the bare truth. Changes needed.
I wonder about writing more but what's the point? He either will or won't shake it up. I'm having a beer instead.
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Critchley's radical shake up is to swap CJ and Sullay. Ir's something.
The first half starts in the same way. Aimless and frustrating. CJ brings it down beautifully, slams the ball against the legs of his man, picks it up again, comes inside and drops it 5 yards short of Woodburn who just looks at it with a 'what am I supposed to do with that?' expression and MK walk away with the ball
Never has football seemed so pointless. This is like a practice match. Joyless is the word that springs to mind. Two shit teams not attacking in an empty ground. Is this actually happening? Is anyone going to bother to enter this game into Rothmans? Why don't they just shake hands and call it 0-0?
MK Dons make the first change. No surprise there.
We win a corner. It comes to nothing. Yates is suddenly in space, he takes a a heavy touch, but the shot still seems on but shirtless Jerry checks back and scoops it towards the far post for the keeper to take instead. I take a deep breath. A calming breath.
The bit between the description above and the fact below is a sack of shit. The best bit is a great Marvin challenge where he clears someone out and takes the ball cleanly.
A second change for MK Dons.
Then as all sorts of thoughts are swirling round my head about Critchley's inability to read a game, the passiveness of our play, the difference between what was sold as a footballing revolution and the difference between the reality on the pitch, man, I'm musing on the fundamental pointlessness of life itself to be honest.... CJ goes down the right, cuts inside, then outside and pulls it back, it's that diagonal ball again but this time Sullay is there, pouncing on it and slamming it home.
I bloody love Sullay.
Sarkic comes on for for Woodburn who hasn't quite done anything significant whilst looking vaguely like he might, at some point, do something significant.
MK have a bit more possession higher up the pitch, they muster a deflected shot and a few moments where they look they might shoot but pass sideways instead. Remind you of anyone?
Yates hustles and fights and wins the ball, spins and spreads it beautifully. Hamilton runs at the box, goes inside and crashes it into the defender. It is at least intent and awareness of where each other actually are on the pitch.
Kemp comes on for Sullay and CJ goes left again. Demi Mitchell does a fabulous cartwheel after being shoulder barged to the ground. CJ picks it up in the corner again, pulls it back and somehow no one gets a touch.
Kemp spins, finds Hamilton and then sprints forward awaiting the return which comes and stretching, he guides the ball into the hands of the diving keeper. Decent work, again, a bit of awareness and direct running.
Finally the Goal Machine for poor old Jerry Yates. He's straightaway into it with an authorative flick on and Kemp and Hamilton are swarming onto it and MK are hurried into putting it out for a corner. We piss about with a short corner then piss about in the corner for about 45 second more after an audacious flick from Madine. More pissing about ensues as Hamilton gets shoved in the back. We mostly continue to piss about in the corner except for when we mess it up right at the end and they break...
...we get away with a horrible moment as they slice right through the middle but the ref hauls the play back for an earlier foul. The free kick takes an age, players jostling and hustling, Ballard goes down and then gets up, the ref checks up, the jostling recommences and finally he blows the whistle....
It's wellied over the top and the three points are safe.
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It's one of the least enjoyable games of football I can recall. There's been very little to really appreciate. Neither side looked massively committed or confident and it was niggly and fractious without really ever having any needle. No one really showed any quality or composure on the ball for very long and both teams regularly made mistakes when there was no pressure.
Ballard was really good though. Really good. Exactly what a centre half should be. He looked like he enjoys defending. I used to play centre back and nothing in football (to me) is as satisfying as when you read the long ball and are in the right place or time the tackle to perfection by being two steps ahead of the striker in your head. The defence did ok as a whole to be honest. Even Demi managed to defend most things.
I hope this game gives us the confidence to play better. We've really been gifted a perfect fixture in a side that look in worse shape than us and who have obliged by not really creating any chances or attacking with any great vigour. I'm not convinced we've actually set up as well as we could to take advantage of their lacklustre qualities, but then again maybe we made them look crap because of what we did. Who knows? We won though.
It was a long way from what I wanted to see and a lot of the questions remain unanswered, but it's a win and we played the last 10 minutes with a bit of a spring in our step in comparison to the rest of the game. These are the sort of games you lose when you're going down and we didn't lose it. We looked turgid but we kept going and sometimes League One produces this sort of shocker of a match where the less turgid team wins. Happily that was us.
Joy abound, we're Tangerine Wizards once more! (sort of)
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