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Tuesday 17th September 2019 – 19:45
Stadium mk
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Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
A Difficult Day But Still Unbeaten
Saturday's visit of Doncaster Rovers proved to be every bit as difficult as some suggested it would be, coming out of the game with a point was a bit of a result as in my opinion we were second best for much of the game and the point was more than we deserved, but they say it is the sign of a good team to pick up points & results when not at your best and this was certainly the case. I mentioned in a earlier preview how we now had partnerships forming all over the pitch but they just didn't seem to function so well this time, Downes & Skuse have been very effective this campaign but Flynn was due an off game and I think this was it, as I said he did some good stuff but his usual level was not there, especially with his passing etc, Jackson & Norwood too found the going tough, feeding off scraps and often too far apart to link up to any great effect, Danny Rowe who had played on the Right in earlier games was proving to be a very good outlet for the team and cover for the RB, just imagine how good Rowe and Vincent-Young could be when they link up but again Rowe was unwell, Chambers & Woolfenden was the one partnership which I felt by and large stood firm.
I definitely think we need to be looking at our wide options, for me Rowe & Georgiou have looked far more effective than Edwards & Judge, the latter in particular disappointing every week so far and clearly not at ease playing wide. The question is will Paul Lambert be prepared to tinker with the formation etc, it's funny how everyone bemoaned the one up front scenario and after One iffy performance now seem to be questioning the 4-4-2 !!! But I guess that is how fans are. The pleasing thing is the strength of the squad now, when you have a situation where Huws, Dobra, Garbutt, Nolan, Dozzell, Lankester, Nsiala, Bishop, Rowe, Keane, Georgiou & El Mizouni are not in the starting line up or even close to the match day squad that surely has to be a good thing, suddenly with players back fit we can almost field two decent starting Eleven's so players will need to be on song or risk dropping out of the starting Eleven.
I think Doncaster were the best we have played so far in terms of footballing ability, their passing was very good and they look to be a good striker away from a very good team at this level, for me they will without question be top Six minimum and in Darren Moore have a great manager for league One and what a Gentleman and a top bloke he is, he deserves success for the way he was so poorly treated at West Brom and I would not begrudge them going up alongside our good selves.
James Norwood
There has been One or Two discussions on this forum alone as to how well Norwood has started the season, clearly his Five goals already would suggest he's started life in League One well, what some would question is the number of chances that have gone begging and that he should be on maybe Eight or Nine goals already, I did think a week or two back that was being harsh on the lad and while I am still of the opinion he is doing just fine it has to be said another couple of One on one situations came and went Saturday which on many other days should probably have been converted. Let's be clear though he makes situations out of nothing at times and if he wasn't getting into the positions in the first place I would be more concerned than him missing some chances, all good strikers miss chances but I feel he needs to bang in a couple of these One on ones in the games coming should they fall his way to dispel any lingering question marks about how clinical he is, what cannot be questioned is his desire, work rate, enthusiasm and total commitment to the team, it's second to none which is why the likes have Jackson have seen their games improve this season too. So a Hat-trick Tuesday evening please James.
The Army Marches On
Next up is a trip to Milton Keynes Dons on Tuesday evening and to be taking 3000 fans for a Midweek game in League One really does say something about the support these days and how much most are buying in to what we are trying to do and where we are right now, 99% have dropped the moaning and misery and are getting behind the team which really does help and thankfully most who I come into contact with are there to support the lads no matter what and so far we have not been let down and while there is still much more room for improvement to be unbeaten after Seven league games is better than a few thought !! We will always have the odd Pinky & Perky" double act that like to bemoan everything ITFC but thankfully they are being drowned out by the real support and generally their negativity goes unnoticed.
Milton Keynes Dons are a hard team to assess, a notable home win against Lincoln City back in August took my eye and only Saturday just gone a Three Nil win at Blackpool looks pretty decent too as Blackpool had started the season well, they are a club who very much puts the emphasis on bringing youth through and I cant profess to know too much about most of their squad, Russel Martin, Conor McGrandles and Kieran Agard are names known to me but other than that it's a case of being in the dark. They currently sit in Tenth place just a point off the top Six at this early stage, so far they either win or lose as no game involving them has ended all square (could be an omen), and while scoring goals is not a problem they do like to concede too so this could well be an entertaining affair. I would have taken a draw here had we got the three points Saturday so its now a case of role reversal, as we drew at home I think we need to be looking to bring home all Three points to keep ourselves in that top Two at the very least, I think Town could just nick this one by the odd goal, looking forward to my second visit to stadium MK and the atmosphere with 3000 of us going should be fab. COYB'S.
The Opposition – MK Dons
![Image](https://www.mkdons.com/siteassets/image/match/201718/northampton-town-a/gallery/pre4-fans-v-northampton-town.jpg/Medium)
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.
The Manager – Paul Tisdale
![Image](https://www.mkdons.com/siteassets/image/staff/paul-tisdale/announcement/mr-tisdale-press-launch-lo-res-40-of-46.jpg/Medium)
Form Guide
MK Dons Last 5 Matches – Currently in 10th place with 12 points
20 Aug Milton Keynes 2 - 1 Lincoln
24 Aug Milton Keynes 0 - 4 Milton Keynes 0 - 4 Peterborough
31 Aug Accrington 2 - 1 Milton Keynes
7 Sep Milton Keynes 2 - 1 Wimbledon
14 Sep Blackpool 0 - 3 Milton Keynes
Ipswich Last 5 Matches – Currently in 2nd place with 15 points
17 Aug Peterborough 2 - 2 Ipswich Town
20 Aug Ipswich Town 2 - 1 Wimbledon
24 Aug Bolton 0 - 5 Ipswich Town
31 Aug Ipswich Town 3 - 0 Shrewsbury
14 Sep Ipswich Town 0 - 0 Doncaster
Match referee – Lee Swabey
![Image](http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Ash+Taylor+Lee+Swabey+Portsmouth+v+Northampton+ZKJ7pX1I2Nrl.jpg)
MK DONS 0 IPSWICH TOWN 1