Utter crap

[Sherif H]

I don't think you can blame Tilly for switching our defence back to it's original line-up today. Herd looked shakey the other day day and it could easily, against a better side, have gone completely wrong on Friday and we wouldn't be having this debate. The bottom line is strength in depth. Barrett will always have his place in the side as long as we don't have a spare centre back at the club (aside from captaincy). I am not prepared to put square pegs in round holes just because Barrett is off form. One sparrow does not not a summer make. We need to sign an actual centre back that makes those two in the middle actually play for their places rather than go through the motions. It is not even neccassarily their fault, as they have been very competent players in the past, but we need competition there, and until that happens, we are not going anywhere near the play-offs and we will experience afternoon after afternoon like the one we had today.
Could have won today to be honest, but we can't contain teams in all sorts of positions, not least from set pieces, away from home.
Stuff Chelsea, I'm afraid Crewe is far more important if we don't fancy slidning firmly into the bottom half.

Crap ground today too. I wish they'd just sod off.
Walking round their club shop made me sick. Just who did they support 7-8 years ago? Scummers.

Got disagree I'm afraid Piers...everyone bar Tilly seems to see that Clarke and Barrett just do not seem to complement eachother as a cb pairing, and, combined with the fact we have lost Bailey and do not have a settled strikeforce (mainly due to injuries), I maintain that we are currently (and have been for some time) spineless.

I also think Herd had a pretty solid game against Northampton, and more importantly, Francis looked far more comofrtable and content at cb, which, conversley served to show that Clarke actually is a good cb (certainly technically a better defender than Barrett).
One thing I would say is that Herd would concern me defensively as a long term solution, as he is absolutely tiny and will get beaten up by the majority of lower league forwards.
As of now, I would say our priorities are signing Harding, a quality right back, another centre back and Lee Sawyer.
This would beef up the defence, give us some creativity and drive in midfield, and allow the frontline to be adequately serviced.

 

[TrueBlue]

back home now and had a 5 knuckle shuffle and I feel quite refreshed now but I am still down about the game

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Loved the turkey hat Scott.

 

[TrueBlue]

Loved the turkey hat Scott.

it was actually WKD stuff turkey this xmas and have chicken!

I wore it in honor of Stevie G and his frozen chicken!

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

I estimate that we had 7-8 decent chances in the first half alone, all wasted by woeful finishing. They were just an average side full stop. In a nutshell, we could have played till 6 p.m. and still not scored although i reckon Barney should start alongside Doogie on saturday, because they did appear to link up pretty well once barney came on.

 

[shrimperton]

Somebody cheer me up

You looked great with that turkey on your head, hope that helps:)

 

[sufcalways]

Worst mistake today was changing the team!

 

[TrueBlue]

you looked great with that turkey on your head, hope that helps:)

its a ****ing chicken! :)

 

[Forever A Shrimper]

Bad day at the office (again)

If it helps, I thought you made some very valid points when adressing the Franchise fans at the end. Could have done with you up the road though because some Historyless fans started squaring up to us after a good song of "Feed the Franchise, let them know its recession time again"

 

[TrueBlue]

If it helps, I thought you made some very valid points when adressing the Franchise fans at the end. Could have done with you up the road though because some Historyless fans started squaring up to us after a good song of "Feed the Franchise, let them know its recession time again"

Knuckle dragging thugs - and yes I am a fine one to talk but still I bet these hard man buffoons waited and had a look who was singing before they decided to have words, not saying your a walk over mate. but the whole franchise thing is a big debate and one I think we should have over in the all leagues forum it would be interesting to hear everybody's views on MK Dons, the fans and what the club stands for.

 

[Irate Ian]

No we were not unlucky, we just did not put our chances away. Yes we did have more of the ball in the first half but just didn't do anything creative with it. Leading up to the first goal it was not a corner but both the goals again came from set pieces. Heavens knows what was said to the players at half time as when they came back out we had no umph,flair or creativity.

Why did Tilly also make 3 changes from the team that beat Northampton?

Only two things reminds me of Milton Keynes. 1. rounderabouts & it is always cold.

At least did not have the force 8 gale and wind-chill factor as when we were last at the Hockey stadium, open end.

Selection dilemna. Experimented with Sankofa at RB as had been called for by many on SZ and captain must have been a difficult decision.

Barratt took one for the team with the sending off, so why not recall him ?

I wonder if SF may be a centre forward !! - he at least has power of shot, which is what is sadly lacking in other powder puff shootists.

 

[keefmoon]

Got disagree I'm afraid Piers...everyone bar Tilly seems to see that Clarke and Barrett just do not seem to complement eachother as a cb pairing, and, combined with the fact we have lost Bailey and do not have a settled strikeforce (mainly due to injuries), I maintain that we are currently (and have been for some time) spineless.

I also think Herd had a pretty solid game against Northampton, and more importantly, Francis looked far more comofrtable and content at cb, which, conversley served to show that Clarke actually is a good cb (certainly technically a better defender than Barrett).
One thing I would say is that Herd would concern me defensively as a long term solution, as he is absolutely tiny and will get beaten up by the majority of lower league forwards.
As of now, I would say our priorities are signing Harding, a quality right back, another centre back and Lee Sawyer.
This would beef up the defence, give us some creativity and drive in midfield, and allow the frontline to be adequately serviced.

You seem to think I am defending Barrett. I am not.
I am saying I would rather get someone in than shift a defence around because Barrett is not playing well. Herd may have looked solid for a few minutes, and Francis may have done ok once at centre back, but these can't be long term options if we want to do anything.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Franno's played up front I think on two occasions, once actually from the start and once as a result of substitutions. I think once was at Leeds in the League Cup alongside Hooper when we won, but I can't think when the other time was.

 

[keefmoon]

But that doesn't mean we'd have him upfront does it?

Mind you, it's a toss up between him and Walker...

 

[Forever A Shrimper]

Knuckle dragging thugs - and yes I am a fine one to talk but still I bet these hard man buffoons waited and had a look who was singing before they decided to have words, not saying your a walk over mate. but the whole franchise thing is a big debate and one I think we should have over in the all leagues forum it would be interesting to hear everybody's views on MK Dons, the fans and what the club stands for.

I know what you are saying mate, if it was you there I am pretty sure they would have thought twice.

 

[TrueBlue]

I know what you are saying mate, if it was you there I am pretty sure they would have thought twice.

I am nobody special mate

 

[Richard_Cadette]

I made this point in another post, but I'm not sure what kind of performance anyone expected with the side we had out? Did anyone seriously expect us to go to Milton Keynes and out football them, win 3-0 and travel back down the M1 all jolly? I genuinely believe the players out there yesterday did as well as they can for the ability they possess - it's not their fault they are not good enough to be competing with teams at the top end of the league, and I may be in the minority here, but what we lacked in pure footballing skill, we made up for in battling qualities.

Either Steve Tilson or Ron Martin has to take responsibility for the squad we have now, but I certainly don't blame the players - we have a sub-standard squad, and that is now made ten times worse with a complete lack of confidence, which is finding it's way through to those players who do possess the necessary to be part of a successful team.

I think some peoples assessment of the performance yesterday may be tinted with what has gone before in December, when in truth, if this was a stand alone game, most would have said we should have got something out of the game, hard luck, let's move on.

We honestly were not that bad yesterday, and believe me, I am our biggest critic at times, and we certainly did come out in the second half and have a go. The problem is we are too easy to beat right now with teams not having to work at all hard to score against us, and you would have thought that a team that managed a clean sheet 2 days ago, despite the poorness of the opposition, would have been kept the same.

There is a lot wrong with the club right now, but i'm not sure the players attitudes is one of them. Blame the manager, or blame the seemingly lack of funds, but don't blame the guys out there, because not being good enough is not their fault, nor is it their fault they ended up in our team.

 

[palexander]

I made this point in another post, but I'm not sure what kind of performance anyone expected with the side we had out? Did anyone seriously expect us to go to Milton Keynes and out football them, win 3-0 and travel back down the M1 all jolly? I genuinely believe the players out there yesterday did as well as they can for the ability they possess - it's not their fault they are not good enough to be competing with teams at the top end of the league, and I may be in the minority here, but what we lacked in pure footballing skill, we made up for in battling qualities.

Either Steve Tilson or Ron Martin has to take responsibility for the squad we have now, but I certainly don't blame the players - we have a sub-standard squad, and that is now made ten times worse with a complete lack of confidence, which is finding it's way through to those players who do possess the necessary to be part of a successful team.

I think some peoples assessment of the performance yesterday may be tinted with what has gone before in December, when in truth, if this was a stand alone game, most would have said we should have got something out of the game, hard luck, let's move on.

We honestly were not that bad yesterday, and believe me, I am our biggest critic at times, and we certainly did come out in the second half and have a go. The problem is we are too easy to beat right now with teams not having to work at all hard to score against us, and you would have thought that a team that managed a clean sheet 2 days ago, despite the poorness of the opposition, would have been kept the same.

There is a lot wrong with the club right now, but i'm not sure the players attitudes is one of them. Blame the manager, or blame the seemingly lack of funds, but don't blame the guys out there, because not being good enough is not their fault, nor is it their fault they ended up in our team.

Great point - and I will agree that for the 1st 10 mins of the second half we looked a different side. At HT we discussed what we'd change - and my mate said we need to up the tempo big time and give more effort and I think thats exactly how we started.

The second goal took the stuffing out of us though and there was no way back.

 

[rowhst101rhall]

You are right RC, we weren't that bad, and that's what makes yesterday's performance worse in a perverse kind of way.

MK Dons hand nothing to offer in the first half, bar the long ball to Wilbraham, which, apart from the free kicks Barrett was giving away with his arms all over him, we were dealing with with ease. IF we had brought the ball down and played across the the pitch, letting the ball do a bit more work for us, and had a disciplined midfield, that kept it's shape, worked the flanks and stretched the opposing back four, as, in the main over the past two seasons we have had, I am prettty sure we would have got a result. Maybe not a win, but certainly a point. But with Stan once again forsaking his position and going walkabout from the off, Clarke, who was by far my man of the match, opting for ambitious 60 yard balls, when the easy and still hurtful ball was available and McCormack and Grant having to second guess where their midfield colleagues were going to be, then we could have applied more pressure for longer. Because with all those drawbacks, I think we still exposed MK Dons, as being nothing more than a huff and puff long ball outfit for much of the game, and definitely all the first half.

Having said all the above, we still managed to hit the post twice, miss a couple of close in headers and blow a clear one on one. So through all this "mayhem" we could have still come away with a result. Maybe not a win, but certainly not lost, as I said above. And that is the key point. We are throwing games away, where, even with a small and weak squad, we are not getting the points on the board that we should be getting. I'm not saying those points will get us promotion through the play offs, as I too have been expecting a season in transition this year with the faces that have gone. However we are a lot closer to the relegation places than I would like.Only three games away at a minimum, but we have no confidence, no positional discipline, making the same errors game after game and talking of improving constanrtly. Well it's time for the talk of improvement to finish and the players to start delivering it, and the management to start working on some of the repeated errors that have been present for the past 2 and a half seasons. Not too much to ask imo, as it is their jobs to do so and so far this season it is not happening.

 

[bucket]

I will have one vivid memory from yesterday.
DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY......
Quality.