Ipswich Town v MK Dons 
Saturday 21st August 2021 – 15:00
Portman Road
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Now It's Time To Get Motoring.......
I started writing this before the Cheltenham game had taken place, due to me taking a few days away in Marko country. Unfortunately, we have come away empty handed again. Perhaps it was best if I hadn’t checked in on the result.
I hoped we would have done the business Tuesday evening and that we have come away from Cheltenham with our first Three point haul of the season, but it wasn’t to be. It is certainly a game I would have earmarked for Three points but then again I did that with Morecambe at home too !!
Things have clearly not gone the way we would have hoped for in the opening four games of the season but look hard enough and there are positives in there believe it or not. The Midfield partnership of Lee Evans & Rekeem Harper is going to be massive in this League, once they get a full understanding of each other they will be some partnership. I really like the look of Joe Pigott too, ok he hasn't got of the mark yet, but his work rate and general all round play look very good, he's come close on Two or Three occasions to that elusive opening goal and was instrumental in the Burton defender converting into his own net.
I think the signing of Kyle Edwards is massive, his opening cameo was full of energy and he looks the business, the defence is now being strengthened what with the arrival of Cameron Burgess and the return to fitness of George Edmundson, we also Hayden Coulson to come into the team too so that is virtually a new Back Four.
I made the point that had we been outplayed and well beaten then we would have cause for real concern but that is not the case, we really should have beaten Morecambe and to salvage a draw was something which would not of happened over the last season or Two, we saw Newport complete a real smash and grab as we created 26 chances on their goal and then we contrived to miss a penalty at Burton when in control of the game so all in all while you make your own luck at times I do still think we haven't really had much of the rub of the green, some self inflicted which is where we need that little bit of time for the team to adjust to one another. Again, versus Cheltenham we dominated possession, had chances and led for 60 minutes. Then we let ourselves down by not dealing with Tozer’s long throws which ultimately cost us the match.
We are still yet to taste defeat in a league game at Portman Road under Cooks leadership and hopefully we will stretch that this weekend as MK Dons pay us a visit. The Dons have started off the season with a Win, a Draw and a Defeat leaving them on 4 points from Three outings. Liam Manning has recently been named their new head coach following the departure of Russell Martin and he will no doubt need time to make his mark on the team. Of course Manning was a One time Youth coach at Portman Road so he will be keen to put one over us too, we seem to say that every week.
A familiar face in the Dons squad is none other than Troy Parrott who spent last season on loan with us, Troy showed flashes of what he is capable while with Town but was also very inconsistent, he did get himself on the score sheet at Sunderland on Saturday but it wasn't enough to get them anything from the game. Parrott scored again for the Dons first win of the season against Charlton.
Another familiar name is that of striker Mo Eisa who I think is a very dangerous opponent and one who is capable of scoring goals. Eisa was slightly overshadowed at Peterborough thanks to the exploits of the excellent Ivan Toney but I think it is a very astute signing by the Dons, Town's flakey defence will need to be on their game or we could be punished. Like Parrott, Eisa got on the scoresheet versus Charlton with a late winner.
With the game being at Home I think Town will be too good here and will get what I hope is the first win of the season with the new look team. Should that be achieved the League table at this early stage will look a whole lot better than the current 19th place on the table.
COYB!!!
The Opposition – MK Dons
Milton Keynes was established as a new town in 1967 and it was occasionally suggested that a Football League club might relocate there. Charlton Athletic briefly mooted re-basing in "a progressive Midlands borough" during a planning dispute with their local council in 1973, and the relocation of nearby Luton Town to Milton Keynes was repeatedly suggested from the 1980s onwards. Another team linked with the new town was Wimbledon Football Club.
Wimbledon, established in south London in 1889 and nicknamed "the Dons", were elected to the Football League in 1977. They thereafter went through a "fairytale" rise from obscurity and by the end of the 1980s were established in the top division of English football.
Despite Wimbledon's new prominence, the club's modest home stadium at Plough Lane remained largely unchanged from its non-league days. The club's then owner Ron Noades identified this as a problem as early as 1979, extending his dissatisfaction to the ground's very location. Interested in the stadium site designated by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, Noades briefly planned to move Wimbledon there by merging with a non-league club in Milton Keynes, and to this end purchased debt-ridden Milton Keynes City. However, he then decided that the club would not get higher crowds in Milton Keynes and abandoned the idea.
In 1991, after the Taylor Report was published recommending the redevelopment of English football grounds, Wimbledon left Plough Lane to groundshare at Crystal Palace's ground, Selhurst Park. Sam Hammam, who now owned Wimbledon, said the club could not afford to redevelop Plough Lane and that the groundshare was a temporary arrangement while a new ground was sourced in South-West London. A new stadium for Wimbledon proved hard to arrange. Frustrated by what he perceived as a lack of support from Merton Council, Hammam began to look further afield and by 1996 was pursuing a move to Dublin, an idea that most Wimbledon fans strongly opposed. Hammam sold the club to two Norwegian businessmen, Kjell Inge Røkke and Bjørn Rune Gjelsten, in 1997, and a year later sold Plough Lane to Safeway supermarkets. Wimbledon were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 1999–2000 season.
Starting in 2000, a consortium led by music promoter Pete Winkelman proposed a large retail development in Milton Keynes including a Football League-standard stadium. The consortium proposed that an established League club move to use this site; it approached Luton, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, Barnet and Queens Park Rangers. In 2001, Røkke and Gjelsten appointed a new chairman, Charles Koppel, who was in favour of this idea, saying it was necessary to stop the club going out of business. To the fury of most Wimbledon fans, Koppel announced on 2 August 2001 that the club intended to relocate to Milton Keynes. After the Football League refused permission, Wimbledon launched an appeal, leading to a Football Association arbitration hearing and subsequently the appointment of a three-man independent commission to make a final and binding verdict. The League and FA stated opposition but the commissioners ruled in favour, two to one, on 28 May 2002.
Having campaigned against the move, a group of disaffected Wimbledon fans reacted to this in June 2002 by forming their own non-League club, AFC Wimbledon, to which most of the original team's support defected. The original Wimbledon intended to move to Milton Keynes immediately but were unable to do so until a temporary home in the town meeting Football League criteria could be found. The club remained at Selhurst Park in the meantime and in June 2003 went into administration. With the move threatened and the club facing liquidation, Winkelman decided to buy it himself. He secured funding for the administrators to keep the team operating with the goal of getting it to Milton Keynes as soon as possible. The club arranged the temporary use of the National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes and played its first match there in September 2003.
Nine months later, Winkelman's Inter MK Group bought the club out of administration and announced changes to its name, badge and colours—the team was renamed Milton Keynes Dons Football Club.
The first season for the club as MK Dons was the 2004–05 season and they managed to stay in League One on the final day of the season. The following season, MK Dons struggled all year, and were relegated to League Two.
The following season (2006–07) was more successful under new Manager Martin Allen. MK Dons looked more consistent than they had done in either of the previous two seasons. They eventually qualified for the play-offs, being knocked out at the semi-final stage.
For the 2007–08 season, former England captain Paul Ince took over as manager. MK Dons won the Football League Trophy, and capped the trophy win with the League Two championship, and the subsequent promotion to League One for the 2008–09 season.
In the 2008–09 season, MK Dons under Robert Di Matteo missed out on an automatic promotion spot by two points, finishing third. They were knocked out of the play-offs by Scunthorpe United.
On 10 May 2010, Karl Robinson was appointed as the club's new manager and, at 29 years of age, Robinson was then the youngest manager in the Football League. In his first season at the club, MK Dons finished 5th in 2010–11 Football League One but were beaten in the play-off semi-finals again.
The 2011–12 season brought similar results to the previous season, with the Dons finishing 5th in 2011–12 Football League One and again not progressing past the play-off semi-finals.
MK Dons experienced their best ever FA Cup campaign in the 2012–13 season, reaching the fifth round of the competition for the first time ever in their footballing history.
Following a disappointing end to the 2013-14 Football League One season (finishing 10th, after being in the top five for much of the season), Karl Robinson made some shrewd summer signings to take the football club forward in 2014–15.
The 2014–15 season began well. The highlight event of the season's first month was being drawn against Manchester United in the League Cup second round, having dispatched AFC Wimbledon in the first. The Dons recorded a shock 4–0 victory over Manchester United in front of a sell out crowd at stadium:mk. A few weeks later, the Dons recorded their record win, a 6–0 thrashing of Colchester United at home. That record did not last long as it was broken once again with a 7–0 demolition of Oldham Athletic on 20 December 2014. Just over a month later, on 31 January 2015, the Dons recorded a joint record 5–0 away win against Crewe Alexandra, earning a short-lived top spot. On 3 May the club secured promotion to the Football League Championship for the first time on the final day of the season.
The Dons started life in the Championship by beating Rotherham United away 4–1 on the opening day of the season and gaining seven points from a possible 12 in their first four games. They were not able to sustain this form throughout the season - the Dons did not win any of their final 11 games and they returned to League One after finishing 23rd in the Championship.
On 23 October 2016, Karl Robinson left the club by mutual consent, following a 3–0 home to defeat to Southend United the previous day, which had extended the Dons' winless run to four games and left them 19th in the League One table.
Robbie Neilson joined MK Dons as manager from Heart of Midlothian in his native Scotland, with his first official game in charge coincidentally an FA Cup tie against Karl Robinson's new club Charlton Athletic. Neilson's reign started off well, with his second game in charge a win over AFC Wimbledon, and in late January 2017 a local derby win against Northampton Town.
The following season started badly and Neilson left by mutual consent on 20 January 2018 after a run of one win in eleven league games with the club 21st in the table.
Under Neilson's successor Dan Micciche, the club continued to struggle in the relegation places. Following a run of poor results with only three wins in sixteen matches in charge, Micciche left the club on 22 April 2018, with assistant manager Keith Millen taking over as a caretaker. On the penultimate weekend of the season another defeat mathematically relegated them to League Two (leaving them seven points from safety with one game to play). Former Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale was appointed in June 2018 after 12 years at his previous club.
After a season where the Dons were tipped to be favourites for promotion, the club spent most of the season around the automatic promotion and play-off places. MK Dons won their final game of the season in front of nearly 21,000 fans meaning they returned to League One at the first attempt.
Following a poor start to the 2019–20 season in which the Dons achieved only one point from a possible 27, the worst run of results in the club's history, Tisdale's contract with the club was mutually terminated on 2 November 2019. The next day, Russell Martin was announced as the new permanent first-team manager; he had joined as a player earlier in the year. Fixtures were suspended on 13 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the clubs later voted to end the season prematurely with immediate effect on 9 June 2020, with the final table decided upon by an unweighted points-per-game system resulting in the club finishing the season in 19th place, thus avoiding relegation.
On the 1st August 2021, Martin was appointed as manager of Swansea and was replaced on the 13th August 2021 by a former Town Youth Coach Liam Manning.
Last season Russell guided the Don’s to 13th place on the League 1 table.
The Manager – Liam Manning
Form Guide
Ipswich Last 3 Matches – Currently in 19th place with 1 point
7 Aug Ipswich Town 2 - 2 Morecambe
14 Aug Burton Albion 2 - 1 Ipswich Town
17 Aug Cheltenham 2 - 1 Ipswich Town
MK Dons Last 3 Matches – Currently in 12th place with 4 points
7 Aug Bolton 3 - 3 Milton Keynes
14 Aug Milton Keynes 1 - 2 Sunderland
17 Aug Milton Keynes 2 - 1 Charlton
Match referee – Joshua Smith
IPSWICH TOWN 1 MK DONS 0
) ….. but skipping over the draw and going for the first win of the season.
No one knows who’s predicting the wins or losses? Different if, (like some online polls) …., names are added beside the results. And it was also only a shocked face emoji? No one was verbally abused or anything like that! 
