town badly need a win we need a moral boosting performance in the league in the form table MKDons are 8th and town are 20th last five games MKDons 2 wins 1 draw 2 loses town 2 drawes 3 loses . MKDons have won there last two games town have lost there's. whilst i thought town were poor against Doncaster and Gillingham i thought we played better against Rochdale. Ricketts is going to have to motivate the team and the players are going to have to shake off the disapointment of losing to liverpool. town are sliding down the table and we are on a poor run. Ricketts mentioned fatigue in his post match interview after losing to liverpool , so i wonder if he will roate some players , i just hope Ricketts picks an attacking line up and town show some attacking intent. we now now have back to back home games pick up six points and evrything will look different
We need at least 4 points from the next two home games to steady the ship and regain some confidence. I am not sure Whalley will be a big loss - and I say that as a big fan of his but Ricketts insists on playing him out of position. Mcaleny will come in and is probably more suited to a front three. Udoh might get a start as he livened us up at Liverpool. I would rest Love and Goss - both seem out of sorts at the moment. Sears could come in with Ramsay replacing him late on so we can have a look at him. - we might even see Hart at left back as Gouldborne has had a lot of football recently. Would be great to see Norburn back with a revitalised Edwards alongside. We cannot afford any more lacklustre displays or stupid defensive errors - it was a travesty when we lost at MK this season so perhaps luck will be with us this time.
let us hope town turn up, dont do anything silly in the first twenty minutes, show some attacking intent and have better distribution from the midfield and be more clinical in front of goal. after towns faluer to turn up performance ;town players need to show some fighting spirite ,cover every blade of grass and give the fans somthing to cheer anything less will not go down well. turn up, work hard, try your best and fans will support you. it is not asking a lot of your team so just do it.
Ricketts put out an attacking line up. MKDons trying to play from the back were at risk of making a mistake when closed down and pressed which is somthing town did well. town had a number of half chances from this. in open play town had one shoot on target in the first half,sloppy play in defence contributed to town getting into difficulty, the distribution from the midfield was woefull. Udoh ran his socks off and whilst town worked hard there was a lack of quality and we did not open them up from open play. i know it is part of the game but MKDones one upmanship was grating to watch. i thought it was a penalty so relived when the ref changed his mind and gave a corner. i thought cummings and lang were getting frustrated at the poor distribution and faliure to play to them when they had run into good poistions. both udoh and lang tried to score as the ball bounced around relived when beckles shoot whent in. unfortently his dithering led to an error that contributed to the goal. whilst it must be hard for a kepper who ha Murphy who has very little to and then gets called into action , but his pushing /punching the ball from a shoot straight at the oncoming MKDons player contributed to the goal, he got beat to the left post as the ball hit the post and completely lost the flight of the ball fortunently it hit the bar. Thought goss was awful semed very reluctant to go for tackles, got caught of poistion and his distribution was often dire his best moment was a curling shoot that went narrowly wide.i like laurent but his decision making and distribution was inconsistent today , thought McAleney and ramsay did well. we looked inefectual in open play, with poor decision making ,poor distribution ,we looked low on confidence overall very poor from town who were lucky to scr@pe a draw. if Rickeets masterplan is to bore fans to death then i would say it was working.
We should have been comfortably ahead given the awful defending from MK but a lack of quality from our forwards let us down. Cummings did nothing to suggest he can be an effective starter and should go back to the super sub role. Udoh is a real trier but lacks poise in front of goal.Lang looked more of a threat when he came on. After Beckles had showed the forwards how to shoot we should have been able to close out the game. Instead we retreated and looked very nervous and Beckles made his customary defensive howler. We were lucky to get away with a point in the end.Mcaleny is a clever and creative player and looks a good addition. Goss was so bad when he came on I would have taken him off. This team has no confidence at the moment and it is difficult to see us beating anyone playing like that. Very few clapped the players at the end and a similar display on Tuesday will lead to a toxic atmosphere. Ricketts must do better than this.
i agree we should have done better with our chances and goss was a liability the forwards were disapointing Udoh had the best chances but as you say lacled poise in front of goal, whilt Cummings and lang struggled both were showing there frustration at the dire distribution and irritation when running into good positions and not getting the ball they wanted both players repetedly were indicating were they wanted to ball played too and most of the time it did not happen ,which must be demoralizing and such a waste of energy. the supply from the midfield to the forwards was dire all game.
Bit worried about Ricketts harping on about the number of games we have played recently - it puts the players into a negative mindset before a ball is kicked. Edwards understandably flagged late on yesterday after his Herculean effort on Tuesday night but several of the players either did not play on Tuesday or did not play the ninety minutes. The ultra-defensive set- up means we are constantly chasing after the ball and that brings a mental tiredness and it is difficult to switch to an attacking mindset if we go behind. MK have won one away match all season but looked the more likely winner at the end. Let's hope Norburn is back on Tuesday and I would also like to see Walker start with Udoh, Lang and Mcaleny upfront. Think we should also switch to a back four to try and get us further up the pitch.
the B& A seems to think that unfortently Norburn will not be fit by then , Walker has not featured lately he cant be any worse than Goss, Vela is supposed to be close to fitness.
