Show Down to Go Down?
The club created by a fraud sanctioned by the football authorities when influential people with barrow loads of money were allowed to buy the old Wimbledon Crazy Gang club and shift it miles away up the M1 to new town Milton Keynes was a dark day indeed as far as football skulduggery in this country is concerned.
(What’s that? – the sentence is far too long? Well – it’s a hell of a lot shorter than that endured by the Wombles’ true stalwarts who re-invented AFC Wimbledon subsequently. Hats off to them. They had to start right at the bottom of the football pyramid in this country. Just as everyone else has had to do. And it took them literally years to claw their way back to an EFL who had basically turned its back on them altogether during 2003.)
No other club in the history of the beautiful game had previously been able to buy a place among the elite clubs of the English game. It hasn’t happened since either: every other member of the English Football League – including ourselves – has had to earn its membership the hard way. So what happened two decades ago still absolutely stinks. The only good thing I can say about the existence of this club at all is that I personally have a very dedicated band of followers on their Social Media sites – they love me so much that some of them actually know where I live, apparently…
But the so-called MK Dons have struggled in their twentieth totally unmerited season in the EFL, having got to the Play-Offs to enter the Championship last time only to fall at the last hurdle against Wycombe Wanderers.
This time, having sacked the Manager who took them to the brink of promotion – Liam Manning – they have continued to struggle in League One. So they started the game against Morecambe today in twentieth position; just on the edge of the Drop Zone.
However, they have won both of their last games against rivals for relegation by the only goal of each contest: at Accrington last Saturday and against Cambridge United the previous week. So if they could continue this upsurge of good form today against another team well and truly stuck in the Legion of the Damned’s mire, things would be looking very rosy indeed for the Plastic People.
(But if they turn out not to be at the end of the season – here’s a hint to the owner of this rogue outfit. Things are looking pretty dire financially at Manchester United currently, Pete – and `MK Red Devils’ has a certain ring to it, don’t you think? Why not slip a few bob their way too – and buy your way into the Premiership this time?)
Today, the omens were good for the Buckinghamshire frauds. Morecambe have a really poor record against the Wimbledon impersonators. They were taken apart at the Max in Lancashire earlier this season when the Ersatz Dons won 0-4 for the second year in a row– and it could have been more. MK Plastics also knocked the Shrimps out of the League Cup in November by two goals two nil in a game played in front a handful of people at their huge venue in the now not-so New Town. They won by the same score there in League One last season.
So Morecambe have not only never beaten the interlopers in League One or Cup games, they’ve never even managed to score against them in these matches. Their single victory over The MK Cuckoos in eight previous contests came at home four years ago – they have lost six of the others.
The Shrimps’ form coming into this game, moreover, was unpromising too. They have drawn three of their last five league games and lost two of them. A week last Tuesday, they were hammered at home 1-4 by Charlton Athletic: the Addicks’ first win for five games. On Saturday, they were lucky to earn a 1-1 draw against a truly poor Oxford United, who hadn’t won for even longer: six games. The only away victory Derek Adams’ men have earned this season was at seemingly doomed Forest Green Rovers as long ago as last September.
The Shrimps arrived in the south of the country today in twenty-second place in League Two; two points and two places behind their hosts. With only eight games left to play, they really needed to win.
So not so much an upturn in form but a minor miracle would be needed today if Morecambe were to leave the MK Stadium with any points at all. But boss Derek Adams always likes to look on the bright side and he said this time:
“We’ve got eight big games to go. It doesn’t matter who you are playing at this time of the season. MK Dons are in a similar situation to us. Away from home, we’re not so good and that has to improve. We need to do it ourselves on the pitch. Wins are vital at this stage in the season.”
Old Father Time Dean Lewington (84) has recently returned from injury to captain the team from Milton Keynes once more. Their upsurge in form is almost certainly related to his return to the side although the club’s Twitter feed told us he was expecting to face Southend United this Saturday because he was `looking ahead to Saturday’s skirmish against the Shrimpers.’ If only…
MK Head Coach Mark Jackson said the following prior to the clash:
“We can’t control what other teams do. Other teams are fighting. Other Managers will be sat in the position I’m sat in now and speaking about how their focus is going on and how they are driving towards achieving their goals. We can’t really worry about what other teams do. All we can do is concentrate on what we do. We can control that; we can’t control other things. All we can focus on is what we’re doing – and that’s what we are doing. We want to win every game we play. “
Asked about the particular significance of the Morecambe game, he added:
“It’s a big one for us. We can’t shy away from anything and say well, it’s not important. We’ve got to go out with the mindset to win the game. They’ll be exactly the same. Their Manager will be sat doing his interview as well and he’ll be talking the same. It’s about who can deal with the situation and the magnitude of the game because it is a big game. We have to be mindful and we have to be respectful of the threat that Morecambe will pose. They will pose a threat to us. So we need to be ready for that. We need to nullify that and we need to be ready to impose our game on them as well. So it’s a massive game. We’ll be looking for three points and we’ll be doing everything we can to get that.”
Mark Jackson talks a good game – he’s very articulate. This lunchtime, he was a guest on BBC Five Live and spoke intelligently about his role as a football Manager in League One and his hopes for the game this afternoon. The presenter and two pundits all wished him well – and good luck for the match later on. With their apparently universal reputation for balance and even-handedness, the BBC naturally then presented Derek Adams’ and Morecambe’s perspective on the game and wished him well too. No – sorry; I’ve got that wrong. They didn’t. But who cares about `little old’ Morecambe? – we are apparently in the Division in the first place just to make up the numbers as far as the BBC is concerned…
It was dry as the match kicked-off and sunny as it progressed in front of a sparsely-populated albeit huge arena. All the upper tiers were empty and much of the rest of the ground was too. Do they ever fill it?
Morecambe kicked-off and immediately took the game to their hosts. King Derek set-up his men in a different formation to usual. He played three at the back with Jacob Bedeau at Centre Half with Liam Gibson to his left and Dynel Simeu to his right. Pape N’Diaye Souaré was given his debut and played as a left wing-back. On the other flank, Donald Love was pushed forward and a lot of the play was directed through him as the Manager had obviously spotted a potential weakness in the Plastics’ left hand side.
The half could basically be summed-up by saying that Morecambe had a lot of the possession, were quick and determined in their interceptions and pressed effectively to push the hosts right up the pitch. MK looked both quick and accurate on the break and they undeniably also had the best chances. Jonathan Leko forced a decent save from visiting custodian Connor Ripley after three minutes, having turned Gibbo as if the wasn’t there and advancing on the goal centrally. Three minutes later, Dynel gave the ball away and Daniel Harvie took advantage and played it to Leko again but his shot this time was way off target. Almost immediately, the men in the white strip had another chance – this time, Mohamed Eisa warmed the visiting goalkeeper’s hands with a poor shot which Ripley again fielded easily enough. At the other end, Ash Hunter tried his luck from distance on the Shrimps’ left after eight minutes but the ball went well wide of Jamie Cummings’ goal to the stoppers’ right. With twenty-one minutes played, Eisa produced an excellent reaction save from Connor following more excellent approach play by Milton Keynes. Just over a half an hour had been played when Skipper Love collided with – and might have been fouled by – Harvie but excellent Referee Thomas Parsons was not impressed. Donald then blotted his copybook with immediate retaliation on the same player with a stupid and needless foul deep in the MK half on the Morecambe right. He is supposed to lead by example and this was a bad one – he was very lucky not to be booked for this bit of petulance. Souaré missed with a wild shot in the thirty-ninth minute and then Ripley again had to be at his best to clutch a cross from Eisa at full-stretch from close range. Just before the break, Connor threw the ball to Love way up the Morecambe right. Donald found Oumar Niasse centrally and he in turn played the ball to Daniel Crowley, whose shot was only just wide of the target to Cummings’ right.
So Morecambe came back to the dressing rooms with some reason for optimism during the second half. Although the hosts had the more clear-cut opportunities, Morecambe had a lot of the ball and played committed football at times. Whereas the Plastics didn’t win even a single corner kick throughout the 45 minutes; the Shrimps won two. The only – critical – fault in their game was the final pass into the danger area.
The second half started to follow a similar pattern. The home team had the first chance but Eisa headed well wide in the first minute of the re-start. Morecambe looked more committed and were quicker to the ball for the first few minutes but again were unable to seriously test the home goalkeeper. The nearest they came was when Gibbo just missed with a near-post header from a corner with fifty-four minutes on the clock. But the match was settled two minutes later. The away team were attacking again but Josh McEachran got the ball and passed to Harvie on the left. He took the ball almost to the dead ball line and whipped over a cross which an unmarked Leko slotted home far too easily. This was after fifty-six minutes. A minute later, Cumming pushed a corner away from the goal only for Souaré to belt a shot from just outside the penalty area which might have been deflected against the goalkeeper’s right-hand post but went wide for a goal kick.
King Derek shook things up after an hour but stuck to the same shape. The nearest they came to equalising was after sixty-two minutes, when Hunter drew a full-length save from the home stopper. Two minutes later, though, Ripley did well to palm away another shot from Leko but Eisa fluffed his lines from the rebound. The visiting goalkeeper made what is becoming a rare mistake with five minutes left to play. Outside this penalty area, he made a poor clearance but substitute Will Grigg was unable to hit an open goal from a long way out. The man in green joined his colleague in the dark blue strip when he went up for a corner kick in the third minutes of added-on time but it made no difference.
So, for the third game in a row, MK have collected all the points and conceded no goals, having scored three. This is promotion form. So when it really mattered, Mark Jackson’s men came up with the goods today. This absolutely vital victory saw them go up to nineteenth in the table, a whole five points ahead of the Shrimps with one game fewer played. Accrington lost during mid-week at home to Plymouth 0-2 – and had a player sent off into the bargain. Today, they were absolutely hammered by five goals to nil at Exeter – but they still have played one game fewer than Morecambe and remain a single point above their Lancashire rivals with a game in hand.. Oxford, meanwhile, didn’t play today but are now three points above the Shrimps, having played a whole two games fewer.
So things look really bleak this evening. Even Derek struggled to put a positive a spin on things this after this potentially absolutely key defeat. You can’t argue with what he said, though.
Morecambe are a League One team trying to exist on a budget barely adequate for League Two. In our midst, the usual suspects are howling even louder than ever tonight for him to be sacked. I personally disagree. There is a nucleus of a good squad in the team which played today: Ripley; Bedeau; Rawson; Gibson; Crowley and Mayor. Niasse possibly. Souaré perhaps as well. Even in League Two, if Derek is given the financial backing to improve on this core, I have no doubt that he can bring us back up again. We don’t seem to be quite good enough to cut it in League One – but we aren’t a million miles off the mark either.
So – all you Unbelievers – be careful what you wish for. The most successful Manager Morecambe Football Club has ever employed said after the match how much he appreciated the way Shrimps’ fans had followed the team through thick and thin this season. He knows it costs a lot of money – and even more dedication. He added – in what I, for one – thought was a very fair appreciation of the game and the position the club finds itself in now:
“We did very well in the first half. The one thing we haven’t done is get enough shots on target. We could have done that better. I don’t think Morecambe had any (delusions) of grandeur coming into this division – the budget will tell you that; the resources will tell you that. The reason we are in the division is because we got from League Two on a bottom of the league table budget. We’re not here because of finance. The players are trying exceptionally hard to get that win. I think the spirit is fantastic. We can’t ask any more of them. They are playing to the best of their ability. We will just keep on working hard to keep ourselves in the division. The players have given their all.”
Milton Keynes Plastics: 1 Jamie Cumming; 2 Tennai Watson; 3 Dean Lewington (C); 4 Jack Tucker; 6 Josh McEachran (14 Bradley Johnson 88’); 10 Mohamed Eisa (9 Will Grigg 71’); 12 Jonathan Leko (11 Nathan Holland 71’); 16 Conor Grant (28 Dawson Devoy 81’); 21 Daniel Harvie; 22 Henry Lawrence; 42 Paris Maghoma.
Subs not used: 23 Franco Ravizzoli; 7 Matthew Smith; 8 Ethan Robson.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C); 4 Liam Gibson; 8 Daniel Crowley; 10 Ash Hunter (17 Caleb Watts71’); 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau (5 Farrend Rawson 86’); 18 Oumar Niasse (9 Cole Stockton 59’); 20 Liam Shaw (22 Josh Austerfield 59’); 23 Pape N’Diaye Souaré (25 Adam Mayor 59’); 29 Dynel Simeu.
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 6 Ryan Delaney.
Ref: Thomas Parsons.
Att: Unknown. Perhaps a sixth of the ground’s capacity at about 5,000. About 200 of these were from Morecambe – and they could be heard chanting and banging a drum throughout the game. God bless them.
