League 1 - MK Dons vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread
Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2022 10:20 pm
MK Dons v Ipswich Town
Saturday 12th February 2022 – 15:00
Stadium mk
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Closing In Slowly...................
The narrow win at Doncaster on Tuesday has seen us close the gap to the top Six to just Six points and despite some teams still having games in hand we are definitely seeing a little bit of progress in our quest to catch the leading bunch. On paper this was another easy game but as we know this never proves to be the case but on this occasion and despite the narrow scoreline Town controlled the game pretty much throughout and rarely looked in danger and while it is true at 1-0 you are always liable to be caught out with the sucker punch it has to be said we never really looked like letting that happen. An added bonus on the night was that other results went our way with some of our rivals slipping up and dropping points with Oxford, Sunderland, Wycombe and MK Dons all guilty.
The only real disappointment for me Tuesday was our sloppiness in front of goal, we created chances and openings with a fair number of attempts at goal but we really did miss Four sitters, Bonne the main culprit with Two headers that really were easier to score and I think it is fair when some say he is probably now over trying, James Norwood too fluffed a chance that was a very good opening and while we are getting the job done we really do need all of the strikers back on song and finding the net, that could be the difference between success and failure come May.
The Midfield has definitely missed the leadership of Sam Morsy, he is what makes us tick and seems to be a calming influence on the team and while no team should be reliant on One man its akin to Liverpool missing Mo Salah for instance, they just arent the same, we have however managed to win Three of the Four games without the skipper but I can't help but feel it may just have been a little bit smoother with Morsy on the pitch. New boy Tyreeq Bakinson has divided opinion and to be honest I am a little surprised, given that he was playing a few a hours after his arrival at the club and with zero time to settle in I think he has done well, yes a few touches and passes don't come off but that's the case with everyone, he is pretty good at getting into good positions in the box to support the strikers and that was highlighted by him bagging the winner against Doncaster on Tuesday, I am sure with more times and games under his belt he will go on to be a good addition to the team.
Saturday's game at MK Dons is a massive chance for us to close the gap even further while taking points off a rival at the same time and while we all want to see a Third win on the bounce I think anything from this game would be a big bonus, the Dons are flying right now and have moved up to Third place on the back of a Four game unbeaten run. Incredibly and despite everyone raving about how good they are doing a win for Town would see us a mere Six points behind them, quite incredible really. The Dons have been winning quite a few games by the odd goal, a bit like us recently so there is nothing to suggest this will be littered with goals, in fact the odd one could win it here too.
I really can't help but feel the Dons have massively overachieved this season and fair play to them, manager Liam Manning is doing a fabulous job and in Mo Eisa & Scott Twine they have Two very good players indeed,another who has recently joined their ranks is non other than a certain Connor Wickham who continues to move around the clubs. I really do think this is a hard one to call, on the one hand it would not be fatal should we fail to win but just think what a massive bonus it would be to come away with another win and what with Two winnable home games following we really could be getting ourselves into contention at the vital time. One thing is for sure and that is Kieran McKenna and the boys will be going all out to secure the win and with over 7000 Town fans in attendance it will feel like a home game, I couldn't care less how we play as long as we get a result, long ball or tippy tappy will do for me as long as we don't lose. I have a feeling it could be a share of the spoils and I would take that prior to kick off. Let's all get behind the boys and trust in what MK is trying to do, so far we are getting results at a time when that really is the be all and end all and we should ask no more. 1-1 draw for me. COYB'S
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 13 August 2021, Liam Manning joined League One club Milton Keynes Dons, becoming the club's first ever head coach. On 8 October 2021, after just eleven league games in charge, Manning was named EFL League One Manager of the Month for September 2021, a month in which he led the club to an unbeaten run of five league games achieving eleven points
Last season Manning guided the Don’s to 13th place on the League 1 table.[/color]
The Manager – Liam Manning
Form Guide
MK Dons Last 5 Matches – Currently in 3rd place with 56 points
22 Jan Milton Keynes 0 - 1 Doncaster
25 Jan Burton Albion 0 - 1 Milton Keynes
29 Jan Wycombe 0 - 1 Milton Keynes
5 Feb Milton Keynes 2 - 1 Lincoln City
8 Feb Fleetwood 1 - 1 Milton Keynes
Ipswich Last 3 Matches – Currently in 9th place with 47 points
22 Jan Ipswich Town 2 - 1 Accrington
25 Jan AFC Wimbledon 0 - 2 Ipswich Town
29 Jan Sheffield Wed 1 - 0 Ipswich Town
5 Feb Ipswich Town 1 - 0 Gillingham
8 Feb Doncaster 0 - 1 Ipswich Town
Match referee – Oliver Langford
MK DONS 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2