Well the strange start to the season is almost upon us, it's quite quickly come round I think.
I dunno what to make of it to be honest, do I be buzzing with excitement and treat it as a normal opening day fixture, or go in it with the usual "League is more important but a Cup Run would be nice" mindset? 3pm kickoff helps a bit to be fair but I am excited, just hoping it's no anti climax!
We'll not be 100%, but we don't need to be which is why I guess it's kind of nice to have a pressure off curtain raiser, almost like a competitive pre season friendly or a Community Shield type feel!
I think we'll go 4-2-3-1 and depending on the result we'll slightly alter the formation to have another bite at the cherry for our new 'plan'.
Cheltenham will be a tough side to beat, had a very good season last season especially for a club with a lot of restrictions to players through small budgets, and even when we 'easily beat' them, we looked like we were poor and struggled against them at times, and I like Mark Yates, very good honest bloke who's done well at Cheltenham! ANYWAAAYS enough of me sounding like Robbo..
I think we'll see:
-----------------------------------Martin-------------------------------------
---Chicksen-----Williams-----MacKenzie-----Lewington----------
---------------------Gleeson----------Potter------------------------------
-Chadwick------------------O'Shea------------------Bowditch--------
------------------------------MacDonald-----------------------------------
Doumbe apparently slowly recovering from Kettering's school field style pitch so I don't think Robbo will want to play him before the bigger game (Oldham) and we all trust Williams now! I think it's come a week too early for Antony Kay who may get on the bench to replace Doumbe's missing spot!
Jon Otsemabor still recovering and again I don't see Robbo wanting to risk him on a game of lesser importance to Oldham, and Chicksen is comfortable and experienced enough to cope there now.
Subs (I believe it's still 7 or less subs for the League Cup?)
McLoughlin
Kay
Smith
Lowe
Powell
Ibehre
Going with a convincing 2-1 to Dons. Good solid away performance, deserved win, tough test and respectable enough scoreline.
O'Shea (1-0) and Powell (2-1) off the bench scoring.
Start of the season.....Sort of..!!
posted on 12/8/12
Most worrying, this should have been an easy game with a morale boosting big score, but MK Dons didn't even win the possession %, something they were really good at last season.
And with a Sending off to boot.
Lets hope it was just Robbo trying something different because if not, it is going to be long hard season
posted on 12/8/12
Not at all sure we should read much into the game - based on these results you would put Sheff U down for relegation material - which they wont be.
Listening to the game there were plenty of positives - and the sending off sounded very harsh. We are through, and a good tough game at the start will help the players get to match fitness again.
The two new signings both settled in well - I am really feeling very positive - Kay sounds like he's going to be a great asset.
Not worried at all - but not complacent either
posted on 12/8/12
Not worried Bill, I'm actually pleased we started off with such a difficult match. You learn more from difficult performances than an easy 4-0 route, and I'm sure we learnt a lot from yesterday! Good to have a tough start, players looked fatigue again so Robbo's plans have come to fruitition. Oldham is where the real business starts and even then we can't judge so early on.
posted on 12/8/12
Not a bad performance with 10 men with the positives Kay and Lowe while we scored all our penalties. I understand MacKenzie played well.
posted on 12/8/12
Was it a difficult match? Havre Cheltenham improved that much?
Last season MK Dons easily won 4-1, so scraping by on penalties hardly instills confidence and certainly doesn't show any progress.
posted on 13/8/12
How does it not? Just because you've beaten a side easily one game doesn't give you a right to ease past the next. If that's the case, we beat Norwich 4-0 last season and drew 0-0 this.... Does that mean we've got worse? No, it's how you perform on the day.
Cheltenham have improved, and not to mention that we had 11 men that time around and hadn't lost another key player with injury after 25 minutes. And we'd also already played a competitive match prior to that and match fitness was at a higher peak.
posted on 13/8/12
McMaccer, Yes, I am afraid it does, thats 2 examples where last season MK Dons performed considerable better than the two games this pre-season.
The fact on both days the team didn't perform, and if they aren't at their highest peak of match fitness now, how will one more week bring a stepped improvement?
You said in your previous post, that the players looked fatigued, how is that a good thing? Many people in football are campaigning for a winter break because the players are tired by Christmas, MK Dons are tired before the 1st match!!!
posted on 14/8/12
Pre Season fatigue is different to mid season fatigue. We looked the same last season against Hartlepool when we only managed a 2-2 draw in the dying seconds, didn't ruin our season to a big extent did it?
It's about getting your players back into the swing of fitness, we looked tired, yes, but we now have a week or so to get back into a normal training routine and get match fit, it doesn't just happen with the click of a finger.
One more week won't bring a massive improvement but if we beat Oldham 1-0 with a slow performance, but go into Bournemouth and Swindon looking much fitter and results keep coming it won't be a problem?
Match fitness is a problem for just about everybody at this time of the season.
posted on 14/8/12
I'm sorry I think that is wishful thinking, what was the whole trip to Ireland about if not to get the team fit?
The team have played 6 matches in 23 days, alright not every player has played every minute, but that is still one heck of a pre-season and if thet are not fit now, hey never will be.
posted on 14/8/12
We done the same last year and we managed fine. It's not about just getting fit, it's about getting match fit and up to speed of the game and we will and should be pretty soon.