MK Dons v Blackpool Official Matchnight Thread 09.03.21

Awful to watch, but we win.

I can't help but still think we play down to the opposition.

We will play better against the teams higher up the league.

Odd feeling, happy we won but that was hard going.

Unbelievably, promotion is still a possibility.

Strange old season.
 
Pauls_Boutique said:
3 away wins in row
11 points from 15
1 defeat in 9
4 points off 6th with 3 games in hand

But we don’t pass the ball or keep possession enough......
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Makes for great reading that.

Quick question, at what stage of tonights game were you certain that the 3 points were in the bag?
 
Nerve wracking stuff! 4 points short of 6th place and minimum 2 games in hand on all teams between there and us. So we are in the hunt on paper. I would like to feel confident we can get there but these sorts of performances are just too unpredictable.

Defence looks good but midfield out of puff again after 65 minutes. Dougall is obviously not recovered and if it is still part of the Covid recovery I doubt we can rely on him improving fitness quickly. We sorely need him though cos Virtue isn't enough with Stewart. Yates is working like a trojan up front though.
 
Wizzerboy said:
Makes for great reading that.

Quick question, at what stage of tonights game were you certain that the 3 points were in the bag?
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Pretty much when the final whistle was blown. Nerves in tatters after them hitting the bar plus late, late offside flags
 
Other than for 5 minutes after Grigg came on that's as comfortable an away win as you'll see all season. CJ should have wrapped it up long before the end and you have to give credit to Critchley for getting his tactics spot on with constant pressure on their back 3.

We won't go up playing like that but if we're picking up points now then when things start to click again we'll be well placed.

Slightly concerned that Ballard was holding his thigh again near the end though.
 
JJpool said:
May as well have hit that last second free kick, slim chance to get a goal but ok we'll take that.

Not impressed with the control of the game. Weve seen our poor possession cost us last 2 games. We did press them second half though but infuriating when when we won it and just booted it up field, no control.

Mk dons pass well but are ponderous at times. We could and should be keeping the ball a lot more, against better sides it'll cost us. To get promoted its a must to be better but was enough tonight.
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We’ve beaten most of the top sides !
 
Insider said:
I think that was a great team performance.
Yates, Ward, Kaikai and Embleton initially worked incredibly hard and the subs that replaced them likewise.
It's a close call between Yates and Ward for my MOM but Gerry's goal clinches it.
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Not Hubby's 3... Yes 3.. Goal saving tackles?
Though Yates is very cool in front of goal. Could very easily have fluffed his chance
 
It’s heart attack stuff, can we just have a few games where we’re in control, pass the ball comfortably and score more than one goal......please.
 
tommytwojags said:
An away win and I still don't feel like I enjoyed it. There's something badly wrong with having only 28% possession.
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Yeah you just can't create enough chances with tonight's ball control. Same against Crewe and Wimbledon we surrender it far too easily and better teams will punish that i feel.

I dont know why when we do win it we cant pass, the reason they had so much of the ball is when we did win it we did 2 passes then long ball to no-one, ok mk come at us again. Luckily they are good on the ball but slow and ponderous mostly.
 
A win’s a win but we will need to put on a better performance on Saturday against Fleetwood who are also on a roll. I cannot remember us putting a decent move together tonight, the theme seemed to be lump it forward in the air to anyone!
Wouldn’t it also be nice if we could get that elusive 2nd goal to calm us supporters down!
 
Kip said:
Other than for 5 minutes after Grigg came on that's as comfortable an away win as you'll see all season. CJ should have wrapped it up long before the end and you have to give credit to Critchley for getting his tactics spot on with constant pressure on their back 3.

We won't go up playing like that but if we're picking up points now then when things start to click again we'll be well placed.

Slightly concerned that Ballard was holding his thigh again near the end though.
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Hamilton bit of a passenger for me today. Still getting back to match fitness obviously but Gabriel might have been a bit of a better option both for winning the ball and retaining it
 
Great to get 3 points, good defending and good without the ball but we really need to get better in possession.
Some of our short passing is nowhere near good enough, too many unforced errors.
But job done and we can get better.
 
Loco said:
Where has all the lovely passing football we played at the start of the season gone?
Just ultra-defensive, ultra-negative.
I can understand that against the better teams but MK Dons, Wimbledon etc???
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I entirely agree however would make two points
1. The pitch was shite
2. We are now playing Sat/Tues/Sat/Tues and we have to use the squad
 
1966_and_all_that said:
OK, I'll bite my tongue about how poor....no, it's 3 points. Dougall and Mitchell helped when they came on. CJ, not really.
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i wont, its not often i say it but that was dire. playing a long ball game to a player isnt comfortable playing that. as bad as we were MK were utter shisser. I think they are about as bad a team as ive seen this year, players fall down at every opportunity so to some extent it may have been how we needed to play, but their defence was full of errors, their keeper was a nightmare waiting to happen. i have to say that if we had have gone at them they would have capitulated - - - - - badly.

i cannot believe the last kick of the game was a free kick to us 25 yards out and we didnt have a go at goal.

we looked unbalanced, we were very narrow in defence and too wide in attack and but for the cross bar it would have been another 1-1.

hopefully the team is going to be a bit more up for it on saturday.
 
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
 
A wins a win no matter how much possesion we had,only stat that matters is we scored they didnt, how many times have we played better than this and come away with nothing,win when not playing well is better than playing well and losing,its the points that count at this time of the season .
 
That was a big big win for us to keep the season alive. I thought we worked extremely hard especially in the second half, but we had almost zero quality on the ball. The pace of Hamilton and Mitchell is criminally wasted in this team i'm afraid because we have no-one in the entire squad who can play that pass that can set them off. It's a real shame, because we'd rip teams apart if only we could find them once or twice.
A word on MK Dons, a lot will be made of the possession stats but they over play it, take massive unnecessary risks, and much of their possession is in their own half. It was very similar to the home game against them, and exactly the same outcome.
We rode our luck a couple of times, but when you have a defence that's generally as solid as ours, and a forward who has that extra bit of quality to take his chance, then you're going to pick up points. Yes the goal came from a mistake by their defender, but that came about because of our pressing, and Yates had a fair bit to do but remained calm. 20 goals striker? Looks probable to me and they're not that easy to find.
Not pretty, certainly loads of room for improvement, but we did the job.
 
CJ showed a great turn of pace and should have scored, he also set up the goal at the weekend. I’m not sure what people expect from him. They changed their formation which posed a few more questions with an extra striker. Good job they didn’t do it sooner! Scrappy, nervy win but much needed. I also think Virtue has done well of late, I’m not sure why people carry on slating him. He was slow coming back from injury but he gets around the pitch well I think. IMHO
 
Costero Poderoso said:
i wont, its not often i say it but that was dire. playing a long ball game to a player isnt comfortable playing that. as bad as we were MK were utter shisser. I think they are about as bad a team as ive seen this year, players fall down at every opportunity so to some extent it may have been how we needed to play, but their defence was full of errors, their keeper was a nightmare waiting to happen. i have to say that if we had have gone at them they would have capitulated - - - - - badly.

i cannot believe the last kick of the game was a free kick to us 25 yards out and we didnt have a go at goal.

we looked unbalanced, we were very narrow in defence and too wide in attack and but for the cross bar it would have been another 1-1.

hopefully the team is going to be a bit more up for it on saturday.
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I agree with a lot of what you say but to say you hope the team are more up for it on Saturday I don't agree.
Loads of effort and commitment from them just a lack of quality, guile and an effective attacking game plan.
 
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