MK Dons 2 - Pools 2

AS I SEEN IT

ALAN ESSEX watches the first match of the season

For those of you that know my style when it comes to writing match reports will know that I begin with a preamble taking in the opposition’s social demography, heritage and architectural merits. In this instance I would like to make an exception.

In the 81^st minute Poole was introduced in place of the tiring Nish who I thought had worked hard and shown promise. This substitution proved to be a piece of tactical wizardry by Mick Wadsworth. Four minutes after his introduction he was fed a ball by Luscombe, himself a substitute, after he won the ball well, near the half way line. Keeping the ball at his feet he then circled around the player he’d beaten and played an accurate pass to Poole who beat 3 opposition players as he ran over a third of the pitch he then calmly beat their keeper in what was probably the best solo goal I’ve seen live. This made the score 1-2 to Pools with the supporters split into 2 as to their reaction, half were cheering & jumping about wildly whilst the other half were just standing / sitting with mouths agape trying to work out if they had really seen what had happened or dreamt it in one of those tricks the mind plays.

Right, now to the start, apologies but Poole’s goal just couldn’t wait. I know that many people do not have a lot of respect for Milton Keynes Dons bearing in mind the clubs history and them being labelled a franchise. I can see where people object, uprooting a club from its ‘home’ and moving them to another part of the country is rather against the principle of a clubs local history and at the same time gives an area with no connection to the club a ready made league side, thus saving the hassle of battling up through the non-league pyramid. Some of us ‘older’ supporters may remember Scarborough wanting to do the same with Pools. What I would say is that anyone who remembers the awful ground that was Plough Lane with its terrible transport links & access and our poor record there should be grateful of their relocation. For those that say that AFC Wimbledon is the true representative of all things football in terms of Wimbledon let me just say that AFC Wimbledon’s ‘home’ ground is Kingstonian in Kingston upon Thames. The other reason I have no qualms is that over the road to the MK Dons stadium is the home of Marshall Amplification, surely the epitome of proper noise making.

This is MK Dons 4^th season at their new stadium and it still looks good. The legroom is good and the seats cushioned, the views are excellent as are the facilities inside of the ground. The big downside is that it has a 22,000 capacity and the 7287 in attendance looked like about 3,000 with vast swathes of empty seating – reminiscent of another ground whose name I have temporarily ignored.

A good turn out of Poolies (479) no doubt boosted by the promotion in the Sun who are trying desperately to buy back popularity and therefore influence.

I was somewhat confused to see Lol patrolling the perimeter area just outside of the ground hawking Monkey Business – didn’t he remember that it’s only available on-line now. Oh well, old habits die hard. In the future when MB will be transmitted directly to our synapses will Lol still be seen outside of grounds calling “get your Monkey Business, still free online”?

Well now to the game as I saw it. Nothing unexpected in the line up with Solano on the right of midfield, Liddle and Sweeney in the centre and Monkhouse on the left. Up front the pairing was Nish and Boyd, the defence being as usual from last season.

" ...the 7287 in attendance looked like about 3,000 with vast swathes of empty seating – reminiscent of another ground whose name I have temporarily ignored"

MK started much the brighter with Flinders having to make some important saves. Powell the MK right winger was consistently getting the better of Horwood who apart from an accurate final ball to Boyd that led to our first goal was having his worst game I’ve seen him play. Solano was consistently being beaten when he came back to help out the defence and had it not been for Austin who in contrast to Horwood was having one of his best games we would have been in real trouble. In all honesty I was disappointed with Solano, there were occasional flashes of class and inspiration but he looked like he was expecting more time and space – welcome to League One Nobby. I’m sure he will get acclimatised to the pace of things in time. The shape the team were taking was 4-4-1-1 with Boyd playing behind Nish, it was good to see the rejuvenated Boyd getting back to help the midfield and at times the defence. And at about 20 minutes Boyd got his reward, Monkhouse did well on the left wing beating his defender before giving an accurate pass to Horwood whose running and positioning on this occasion were spot on, a clever cross to the far post beat Nish but fell to Boyd who headed into the net from close range.

MK continued to dominate but Flinders and Collins were up to the challenge when it mattered. Despite this domination Pools had a few opportunities to increase their lead, twice Monkhouse took wild shots from just outside of the penalty area to see them sail by the corner flag. Both Nish and Sweeney had chances but not on target.

Still 1-0 at half time was good going.

In the second half MK stepped up their game and 10 minutes in they were level, Chadwick who was getting stick from a section of the Pools supporters (for his looks rather than any malpractice) got on the end of a well worked move and shot past Flinders 1-1.

MK continued to press and in all honesty it looked just a matter of time before they took the lead. As mentioned both Collins and Austin were holding the defence together, with Horwood looking a liability and Hartley getting pulled out of position too easily. With the midfielders having to come back to defend there was little outlet to get the ball clear meaning we were constantly under attack.

Luscombe came on to replace Solano just under the hour – shape wise what an unlikely looking footballer he is, however he was determined and prepared to get much more involved than Solano had. A few minutes later Boyd was replaced by Murray, signalling that the management were content with the draw. Now we get to where this report began. Luscombe’s winning of the ball, his pass to Poole, Poole’s great run and finish.

MK as expected did not give up and on 90 minutes equalised through Ibhere, a substitute for Chadwick. This followed some poor defending – I’ve already named earlier the suspects I feel were at fault.

In time added on MK had a good shout for a penalty which was waved away by the referee (Andy D’urso, who had a very good game). Now usually something like this would go against us, so maybe this is our season after all.

An away draw against one of the promotion favourites is a good start; let’s hope we can build on this. Positive points from the game were Poole and Luscombe’s debut / substitute appearances, the consistency of Austin, Flinders and Collins, persistence of Sweeney and the discipline of the team in retaining formation.

I thought the burgundy coloured away strip was classy and by far the best we’ve had for a long time. Onwards and quite possibly upwards. Having said that, we started the day 9th on alphabetical merit and are still 9th so maybe onwards and sideways for a while.