The Hotel End

So here is your regular (by now) "48 hours before the game preview".... This Saturday we make our shortest trip of the season to Bletchley to face the MK Dons.......

MK are sitting in 13th place with 38 points from 28 games, so thirteen points and eight places better off than us. They've actually had a decent run recently after bouncing around the bottom half earlier in the season. They have won 7 of their last 12 games in all competitions, and are unbeaten in four in the league. Home form has been patchy, too many draws with six recorded in their thirteen games so far, with four wins and just three defeats, those coming against Lincoln, Hull and Charlton. 19 goals scored and 15 conceded in the league, they are coming off the back of two decent away wins in the league, 4-1 at Rochdale and a 1-0 victory over Hull last Saturday. They were without a midweek game.

Cameron Jerome leads their scoring charts with 11, nine of them in the League, and Scott Fraser has also bagged nine goals in the League for them since his move from Burton. Jerome missed the win over Hull having gone off injured in the Rochdale game. Dons have also signed Will Grigg on loan from Sunderland and he is looking for his first goal of the season.

Former Cobblers in the Dons ranks currently are regular goalkeeper Andrew Fisher who had a loan stint with us last season, back up keeper Lee Nicholls who again was with us on loan back in 2012/13 and a third loanee in Regan Poole who we had from Manchester United in 2017. The fourth ex Cobbler in their ranks is Hiram Boateng who is currently on loan at Cambridge.

After a sticky start the Dons manager Russell Martin is earning plaudits for the easy on the eye style of football and has now recorded 22 wins in his 61 games in charge. He has today been linked with the vacant Bristol City managerial post.

Head to Head in the Dons short league career, we have now met 17 times and The Cobblers have only recorded three wins. This will be the fourth meeting this season following two games in the EFL Trophy, both of which were won by the Dons, a goalless draw was the outcome in the reverse league fixture back in November. In the four previous league encounters in Milton Keynes we have managed a draw and three defeats, our last league visit there resulted in a 1-0 defeat back in October 2018 in front of nearly 10000 fans. Sam Hoskins started that day with Shaun McWilliams coming off the bench, they are the only two survivors from our squad for that game.

Referee in charge at ringside for this one....will be Samuel Barrott who will travel down from West Riding, he's a first year EFL Ref...we seem to get a fair few of them..... who has handed out 58 yellow and 4 red cards in his 22 games. Three of those reds have come in his last seven games. He has not reffed either side before.

Correction - Regan Poole is not at MK they sold him to Lincoln in January.

For the life of me, I don't remember Andrew Fisher being at the Cobblers last season, between the sticks or otherwise... whoever he is!

Loan signing from Blackburn Rovers, played a few games in the EFL Trophy if I remember correctly. He was signed to cover for Steve Arnold's injury suffered at Port Vale. 

We are winless at MK, usually backed by thousands of Cobblers fans in that soulless too-big-for-them stadium. Glad not to be there again tbh, too many depressing memories of bad luck and bad refereeing decisions. So, this means we will probably, get the win there this season. Here's hoping we do and it really kick-starts the revival to safety.

Time to put right our abysmal record at Stadium MK, although looking at the score predictions on their forum we have no chance. Of the 24 posters 23 predict a MK win with 1 giving us a draw, only 9 think we will score but the average poster thinks MK will score 3-4 goals. Do they not know we have kept 4 clean sheets in our last 7 league games and only conceded 5 times.
Although they are on a decent run of form they have only won 4 of their 13 home games and they have 3 clean sheets. Only once have they failed to score and only once have they scored more than 2.
In our last 4 away games we have draws at Fleetwood, Accrington and Ipswich so their is no reason why we cannot get a positive result at MK.
As GPC says the referee already has issued 4 red cards (as has the referee for our Rochdale game on Tuesday) so they are challenging our old friend Charles Breakspear who so far has 5. We need to cut out the silly yellow cards we are picking up or we will again be incurring further suspensions.

Good shout.....my mistake!

Ah, vaguely vaguely remember now I think. 👍

Indeed, Bradley Lashley covered on the bench for a few games then Fisher came in. He started all three Trophy group games but only made the bench for all the league games until Arnold returned, which he did for the Chippenham away FA Cup game. Fisher then returned to Blackburn at the start of the January transfer window and then joined MK at the end of it, not making an appearance before the season was cut short.

He started in Blackburns EFL Cup season opener against Doncaster in August but then didn't appear again before he moved to MK on a free transfer in October.

There does seem to be a curse on us when we play at the Bletchley Bowl. So anyone who knows any suitable spells or prayers, get busy.
By the way, what colours do they play in this season?, they never seem quite sure. I suppose it depends which colour shirt W*nkleman can get the best deal on!

I doubt that there will be any noticeable difference in the noise level of the home support tomorrow to that of previous seasons.

 ;D ;D ;D

In days gone past MKUltra vs NAT. No contest. I do miss a good ruck.

Me too.

Any advice on parking?


God, do I miss boring clueless fans...not!

i think if Miller and Sheehan are half fit they will play in this game .
JB needs a win and we need goals .
Miller fits perfectly into a 4 4 2 and has to play .
Not sure who will be picked alongside Rose - it could even be Chuck

I predict a win for the teyn, 2-1.

Get the early train and take Ikea before they realise we’re on their manor.

The rollmops in Ikea are not bad.

ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ
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So much to read in our ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ its bigger than ever this week, make sure you give it a read.
https://cobblerspast.com/preview-mkdons-a-200221/

The good old days. The delightful Bletchley WMC.
Im so glad that I dont live in that sh!thole.
As an aside, as we are thinking about times past, picture the scene. I and my friends are drinking in the Beckett prior to a game. In come a couple of their "lads" fresh off the train, wearing Burberry trousers and scarfs. We burst out laughing, and sang the theme tune of Rupert The Bear. They very soon left.

Hadn’t got you down as follower of this movement

Unchanged line-up.

Team:

Mitchell; Kioso, Horsfall, Jones, Mills; McWilliams, Morris, Sowerby; Hoskins, Rose, Marshall.

Subs: Arnold, Bolger, Watson, Miller, Edmondson, Chukwuemeka, Sheehan.

Sheehan and Miller on the bench though...

The best standard of bench this season.........but let's hope we do not need any of them!

Correct. I should have said same starting line-up.

Can’t wait for the insightful commentary and analysis from that numpty who covers the dongs games again  ::)

Let’s hope JB isn’t tempted to bring them on. We need them fully fit for Dale on Tuesday.
Scraping a draw and knocking one or both of them back from starting on Tuesday would be a bad result IMO!

Pleased to see BAS has been dropped from the squad again.

Amazed he went on Friday from needing to try harder in training, one session on Monday and he had leaped ahead of Edmondson and Chuck in the pecking order on Tuesday night. 3 training sessions later he’s back out the squad.

A wins a win but I know what you mean, in the case of Sheehan I think it’s a degree of fitness rather than fully fit.

Hmmm. Some game time with no ill effects might be preferable?

Its a goal!!!!

A fcukin goal!!!!!

YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

We’ve got this league in the bag now.

Brady in

Wow a goal

Up to 18th

We've got this league in the bag!!!

From a centre back!!!!!

Pitch looks s***e.
What have they been doing to it? ;D

Bristol Rovers lost, Fleetwood losing, now Swindon losing too......its a good afternoon so far!

Goal from a Marshall assist.
Manny’s a bit slow off the mark to say “I told you so”?!

Any radio numpty coverage on iFollow? Only getting home coverage

Brady out....

Brady out

Bugger. Good strike though, to be fair.

Bollox

Sack 'em all!!!

Bollocks.
Lovely ball out to the left wing from Sammy.
Amd them he misses an open goal  ::)

Super Sam misses an open goal. FFS

Looking like 4-4 this one??!!
2 shots on goal - 2 goals!

Anyone else got Stoke Luton commentary from stadium MK?

Can hear the voice of the Cobblers' analyst in the background saying we're showing them way too much respect and have to agree. They're trying to play out from the back and aren't very good at it. Get in their faces and they'll gift us a goal sooner or later.

Swindon level

IFollow commentary s***e.. they’ve got the Luton Stoke game!!

Kioso is having a mare. 2 misplaced passes, cheap free kick on the edge of the box and an assist with a poor header for their goal  8)

It was never ever a free kick, cheating plastic c***

Agreed, really poor decision.

I truly believe theres a 2nd goal in us

Mark Marshall, FFS how many times are we going to hit the woodwork.

I don't

Burton 0-2 down at home to Sunderland......

Plagiarism!!!

Wigan lead Lincoln......it won't last!

And it didn't.....a minute later its 1-1

Are we playing 3 CBs or is Mills supposed to be on the left?

Sack 'em all again!

Will Grigg's on fire.......

Fukcs sake.

Hopeless from Mitchell

Mitchell just has to save that. P1ss poor keeper

Game over, there is no chance we will score 2 in one match.

Curle in

My Nan would have saved that

I wouldn't go that far......

1-1

She's the greatest!!!

He literally dived over the top of it.

You could hear the audible frustration from the bench as that went in. They've had two chances and scored two goals. We just don't have enough quality in either box.

What's also interesting is hearing Brady barking instructions at set pieces on where he wants them to stand and even what order he wants them lined up in when attacking the ball. Clearly something they're putting a lot of work into and it's already paid off once today despite the inconsistency of our deliveries into the box.

Have to say I'm impressed by Brady and Co tactically so far, much less impressed by KC's crap team. Would like to see Brady get the chance to rebuild this squad in the summer and see what he can do at League Two level.

i wouldn’t have Mitchell in goal .
I don’t think Arnold is great either but i think he is safer .
We hardly ever have a situation where the keeper digs us out . it always just goes in .

Will Grigg hadn’t scored for 17 months... then he plays against us

I dont know how Mitchell plays ahead of Arnold either.
Like you say, not the best but better than Mitchell.

hes the greatest

Ref gives them everything, us nothing.

Fouls conceded....MK Dons 6, Northampton 4

2-1 ht
This will probably end up 4-1

Im starting to get a very bad feeling

I know the footballs miles better to watch BUT the results are identical I’m afraid 😟

Mitchell for their second. Almost as bad as Cornell. Drop him on Tuesday ffs.

I'm not

Almost as long as our team!!

At least we stopped that rot...Horsfall scores our first goal in 542 minutes.

Not sure the football was any better that half.
No good the fullbacks bombing on if no one gives them the ball.

Not passing as well as tuesday night, pity because their defence is ponderous.

I thought we were a bit unlucky to be losing. Hoskins misses an open goal and Marshall hits the post at 1-1 and then Jones gives the ball away through a sloppy pass in midfield and they go straight down the pitch and score, and yes Mitchell should have saved it.

We can still get something out of this, they don't look that great at the back.

From The Concrete Roundabout.....

"Lucky Northampton are s*** or we'd likely be behind with the chances we've given them. The passing out from the back has been terrible."

Are you serious? We look so much better going forward. With a bit more confidence and quailty in the final third we'd be winning. We need a bit of luck and might get it playing like this. However, even if we lose, a more attacking mentality is the only option. We'll only win if we score goals and at least we look like we're going in the right direction. If we lose 4-1 but have given it a real go, that's a real step forward. Much better than losing 2-0 without having had a shot on goal (as happened regularly with KC). It takes time for a change in mentality to get rewards and if that means we start our unbeaten run in a week's time and not today, so be it  ;D

Curious Substitutions again ???

Watson.....!! Desmond!

Brady in

As for the second goal ...I thought there was a deflection which would have made it more difficult.
We should not be losing this.
.......WOW equaliser

Get in Watson.

Brings someone on and they score inside a minute.....inspired rather than curious!!  ;)

Great goal nothing more than we deserve.

;D

I meant better than Tuesday, not under Curle.
Yeeeesssss!!

I truly believe theres a 3rd goal in us

I don't

Two quick Pish goals give them the lead over the Wombles, we're back outside the drop zone.

Commentaters curse ...I was a bit mislead when their 3Cr man stated Edmundson on .....and he later even credited the goal to him rather than Watson.

Come Back Toggle Tim ....this guy is much worse.

Plagiarist... 8)

You can tell those plastic wankers came out thinking all they had to do in this second half was turn up ;D Game well and truly on now.

Jones unlucky from the corner - we're actually going to score some goals under this management team.

2 assists from our best player 🙂

MKDonks are giving us every chance with their dodgy persistence in playing out from the back.

Hoskins was not involved in either.......  ;)

He's understandably taken a bit of stick on here but credit where it's due, Edmondson has been superb since he's come on. Lots of energy in his pressing but in a calculated, measured way, as opposed to Hoskins' and Rose's headless chicken approach, which is resulting in us forcing errors and getting the ball back high up the pitch. He's also making some very good runs that are opening up space for others - including for Watson's goal.

We are actually now looking like a team that can compete in this league .
The players look as though they believe in themselves and can get a result .
All the criticism of Curle has been justified and shows you sometimes the fans know best .

Oh yeah, so much better to watch now. Not convinced on fans knowing best however...

Send Edmundson back

Miller on. We're going for this!

He’s got to score... slow so and indecisive

How the fcuk did he miss

Afternoon

Sounds like we're making a decent fist of it.

And two goals!!!

Hello Was

Alright Baldy :)

I can only see bare stats via SkyBet and if you ignore possession (which I always do anyway) seems we've done okay

Hang on for a good point or grab all three?

Wigan now trailing, Burton 3-0 down, Wimbledon losing, Swindon drawing....

Fet in!!!

Get in there!!!

GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL

Yeeesss!!!

And Mark Marshall was not even in the team under Curle!
Great finish from Kioso.

Well played CJ!!!

Sweet! If only Accy hadn't conceded I'd be well chuffed....  (backed us, Pish and Accy when all three were level)

Brady in!!!

We look a side !
The old onion net is rippling again !!
i can seeeeee the light -
Praise The Lord For There Is A God .
Take me out of the dark and show me the promised land of milk and honey .
The dark days are behind us and the Shadow Of Curle has been banished

Make that twice. We look a threat every time we get a set piece and you can tell it's as a direct result of what this management team is doing. Superb stuff.

All right Bruv?

WOW!!! Get in

Thermos and blanket today Doc?

No!!!!!!

Ffs

Oh dear

Brady Out

Absolute crap from Jones, weak as f***.

WTF... SkyBet is s***e. I didn't even see that goal..... the score just updated

Mitchell is all over the place since he let the second one in.... he started to come for it then stopped and ran back hopeless.

I truly believe theres a 4th goal in us

C'moooon lads, there's a 4th in us!

He’s cost us two goals

Brady out

Fu cking Hell

Sweet Jesus!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Peanuts!!!

Pathetic.
Alright taking the brakes off, you still have to defend.

We should play 11 outfield players because every shot they have goes in!

Score three away from home and still get beat

Gutting

This lot are hopeless. Mighty fine effort from the three amigos at polishing a turd but there's neither the quality nor the fortitude in this group to compete. Incredible that we can play so well, create so much and yet still find a way to lose.

Mitchell at fault for the third and we switched off for the quick free kick for the 4th. Frustrating.

We'll never bloody win at Stadium:MK

Sheehan on for Hoskins, Chucks on for Marshall.....

Agreed, all Curles bluster about mentality and  we get this.

94th minute goal for Swindon......

We are going down

From what I've seen we've battered them and lost....

Think he needs a rest TBH.

Does this defeat force Thomas' hand??

SkyBet stats have us 18 shots to their 9, 10 on target, 6 corners to their 1. Converting that into 3 goals is not bad but letting 4 in from their 8 on target.....

Just a shame we didn’t have enough defensive players at the end, but then we needed the attacking players to come back from 2-1

What chance do you have when your keeper plays as bad as that?

To a man the onfield players played well - all let down by the useless Mitchell.

What a turnaround in playing style though. For me, Brady should be appointed.

JB needs to win big against the dale or he’s gone, as I said football is much much better BUT the results are the same.

This was a game that was there for the taking !

Could MK ever play as bad at the back again...they gave us so many assists.

Crucial defeat. Such a shame.

Not at all.... look at the chances we created and goals we scored! We hadn't scored or even looked like it for 5 games.

If that doesn't give cause for optimism then nothing will. There's bound to be some frailty and lack of confidence every time we concede. We just need to lose that.

Absolutely! A huge improvement across the pitch. We were let down by some incredibly poor goalkeeping.

Really disappointing.

A very decent attacking display. So refreshing to see proper overlaps and interplay between full backs and wingers - not sure we ever really saw that under Curle. The likes of Marshall, Watson and even Hoskins seem to enjoy having the shackles lifted and were a pleasure to watch.

That was an entertaining game and I probably enjoyed watching it more than many dour Curle-ball 1-0 wins, regardless of the final result. It was a proper game of football played in the right spirit and I've missed that. 

However, you have to say the game management was poor. Fully back the substitution of McWilliams when we were looking for a winner at 2-2 but it was always going to leave us exposed in the middle once we had the lead and MK were chucking the kitchen sink at us. If Brady had brought Sheehan on at 3-2 to calm things down then it might have been a different story.

Agree with others on Mitchell. Time to bring Arnold in. He's not perfect but when you're in a dogfight you need experience at the back.

Makes it difficult for him. I'm sure he wanted to stick with Brady but today may have highlighted his inexperience at this level.
Hope he gets another week myself.

So much better again, I can see us putting a run together if we can just get that first win. Starting Tuesday. Up the f***ing Cobblers.

+1

We should have won that, we really should have had more than three goals. As for their 4th goal I thought it was a foul on Marshall and the free kick should have been ours.

Think McWilliams had picked up a knock hadn’t he so had to come off either way?

+1

Despite poor defending for goals 3 and 4, their 4th goal was a result of very poor refereeing. Firstly, it was clear obstruction by their player on Marshall and they get the free kick, which is taken about 10 yards from where the foul happened and with a moving ball. We really should be in the ref's ear about that. That's 3 wrong decisions in the space of 5 seconds. What do they get paid for?

Other then that, what looked like a good performance worth 3 points turned sour. Our defence was literally at walking pace for their fourth. Absolute disgrace. Having said that, a thoroughly entertaining game and if we keep playing this well going forward we'll win some games. We'll just have to hope we'll win enough.

Well done JB the turnaround in football is excellent.

Grigg, Mason and Jerome against Hoskins, Rose and Marshall is the difference.

Keep these performance improvements going and we have every chance of saving the season.

I agree with all of these. Real cause for optimism at the moment despite our league position. If we can keep going with this style of football and create this many chances we'll either survive or at least make a damn good fight of it, and at this point I'd be happy with either outcome.

A massive improvement in quality of play under Brady, decent attacking passing football. Unfortunately it all comes to nothing without a really good keeper. I think Mitchell needs a rest.

Poor refereeing doesnt put the ball into our net though.
Agree the defending was piss poor.
Conceding 4 goals in a game like that worries me. It's alright looking much better going forwards but if it comes at that cost...
 Maybe Sheehan coming into the back four will improve things, but I'm not sure who you drop. New captain or Horsefall I suppose.

I thought Horsfall was one of our best players today, it would be very harsh to drop him IMO.

Just think what might have happened if Curle had been sacked back on the 14th November when the Curle Out thread was started. We'd have stayed up for certain.

Massive improvements in playing style, attack and set pieces.

Woeful goal keeper. Send him back and look at unattached goal keepers. They will not do worse than Mitchell managed today.

Not JB's fault that he's been handed 2 not very good goalies. Give him the job now, I already feel much happier the way things are going. Even if we go down we might have a good next season.

I think he should have done better for 3 of the 4 goals. It’s easy to blame the keeper when you ship 4 goals but when youve got your backs to the wall like we have you need you keeper to make a few crucial blocks to keep you in the game. We seem to be missing this.
This is such a hard one to swallow but well done JB. A huge week coming up now. 4 out of 6 points would be ok.

James Heneghan thought the third goal, by Jerome, was offside. If he has the same view as us I don't see how he can tell. It was just an up and under that wasn't defended very well, at least that's how I remember it.

Style of play is irrelevant.
We are too weak, physically and mentally. Too much of a soft centre, and too many liabilities in the team.
Everything a team destined for relegation has.

Some of these posts read like we won the game today. We lost, again, and will continue to do so until he players are changed.

it was an up and under, so much so I wondered if Mitchell could have come and collected it.
In any event the defender (Jones?) was pushed off the ball far too easily. As much his fault as the keepers.

I partially agree but I think you are being very unfair on Brady. You are saying the players are the problem and I think you are right. But in a fairly short spell of time he's got them playing good football. He can only play the cards he's dealt and any other manager coming in will have to play with the same hand. Given that the players mental frailties will make it hard to get a result, I'd suggest the style of play is far from irrelevant; it shows what Brady wants to do and in fact can do.

At least we are scoring goals but the defensive fragility that’s existed all season seems to have yet again been our undoing.

Next game is the decider for me. Get the result, keep Brady. Don't, appoint someone else.

I thought it was a free kick to us so I am tending towards the view that the Referee and our goalkeeper cost us that game. I hope it doesn't cost Brady the job.

Also, just to mention that everyone on twitter from MK seems to be a teenager obssessed with banter and memes. It might be obvious considering the club itself is that age, but very noticeably more childish than most other clubs.

It's legitimately embarrassing.

Agreed - although I might extend this to the next two games with a minimum target of 4 points.

So far Brady has proven that he can drastically improve the style of play, create chances and (finally) produce goals. What he hasn't proven yet is that he has the street smarts and game management to achieve wins at this level. We have also conceded 6 goals in his three game tenure - the leakiness has to change pretty rapidly too.

If he gets results against Rochdale and Swindon then I'd be supportive of giving it to him until the end of the season. (I'd avoid any longer-term commitment after what happened with Austen.)

I agree with your agreement  ;D But will add that one statistic is somewhat skewed by the 4 today of course.

Spot on Dan, imagine if Brady had been given the Jan window, still KT knows everything better.

Or, embarrassing illegitimates ;)

Yep can’t disagree with that but I think KT has other ideas and think he will appoint a new man next week irrespective.

Any reason for thinking this or is it purely guesswork?

You feeling okay?

KT to put his hand in his pocket and appoint someone rather than letting it roll on the cheap with Brady?

Disappointing result considering we were 2-3 up with less than 10 mins to go. Perhaps we should have played like Cobblers of old wasted time and shut up shop. I think 'gamesmanship' was missing. Even a draw would have sufficed. We now have a nail biter v 'Dale and frankly am not terribly confident of gaining a winning result.  Swindon winning does not help either. JB will now have to think how to organise the defence best he can to avoid conceding goals when in the lead :-\  I really don't envy Brady's job now, but he has done well to pick the side up and get them on the front foot! Time is now against him and another poor result may well force KT's hand. Its a pity some go out of their way to criticise Mitchell; certainly MK's second goal looked preventable; no chance with the 1st and as for the others not sure if he could have done any better. Fed up!

I hope you were all entertained by the game.
I'm more of a results person and I can't help thinking if Curle had been in charge we would have won that 1-0

Going into this game MK were top of the current form table and we were bottom (over last four games) so I wasn’t expecting anything out of it.  As it unfolded however I felt sure we were going to get our first win at stadium MK.  When they levelled to make it 3-3 I would have actually been disappointed with the draw.  To then lose was just soul destroying.

Nevertheless the performance was superb and when you consider that this was away to the team bang in form, I think it bodes well.  Nearly every team will have a poor runs and all poor runs end. I think ours is about to.  It probably would have today had we been playing almost anyone else.

The difference now is we are playing with a confidence that has been missing all season.  I can see us shortly getting our first win of 2020 then going on a run. There is still a lot of the season left so I’m not panicking just yet.

The only problem with MK being top of the current form table is that by all accounts, from their fans to their manager they played poorly, yet they still managed to beat us and put four past us in the process!

I don't know what to make of "celebrating" goalless draws at out of form sides such as Ipswich (who drew 0-0 again today) and losing to an under-par MK Dons for the third time this season!

Plenty on here didn't care what the performances were like under Curle as we got some results....now the performances are better under Brady but we've picked up one point in nine. Funny old game.

Still, I am confident of a good points haul this week, an elusive win over Rochdale and a draw at Swindon will be a good result.

It's difficult to judge really, isn't it. Just a little bit of luck with the woodwork or the refs, and I think I'd be very happy with where we were... I feel like we've been unlucky to get 1 point from 3, and almost all 3 games we've come away with less than what we deserve. However, if that continues to be the case then it suggests something is wrong, as they say they make you're own luck in football! Next two games feels like we'll really see if we have what we take, though I feel like I was only saying that really recently with the Wigan/Burton double header, and look how that turned out.

I think what peed me off most was that we'd worked really hard to come back from 2-1 down and with 7 mins of normal time to go and we're 3-2 to up you must get something from the game. I was VERY disappointed (to say the least) with our lack of ability to see the game out. In this situation you want see your team putting their bodies on the line, breaking up play, the basics what most teams do to see the game out. It looked like (to me) we played when 3-2 up as if we were safe in mid-table.
               

2 of the goals yesterday came from defenders 1 from a midfielder, it’s time for the attacking players to finally contribute.

Whereas what would have actually happened would have been a mirror image of Crewe away 😂 maybe the early goal and then 88 minutes of defending and losing.

Agreed. Very frustrating, but let's not forget lady luck. MK were extremely lucky to win that game. A hopeful punt over the top lands in no man's land between goalkeeper and defence and they score, having not looked like coming back in the previous minutes. Obviously not helped by weak defending by us, but the ball, by chance, landed in the only spot from which they could have scored. I've already given my opinion on the fourth goal which includes 2 (or possibly 3) mistakes by the referee. On another day, neither of those things happen and we see the game out.

Those people who expect us to be able to attack better and defend better in the space of 2 weeks need to understand that to attack more, JB has had t take a gamble and it will take time to get the balance between attack and defence. I would like us to use a bit more gamesmanship when leading though, like we did under KC. I understand that JB doesn't like this (and neither do I) but sadly all teams do it and tend to get away with it and it influences results, so we can't afford not to do it in our position.

I think we had bought on the attacking players to get us back from 2-1 but then when leading 3-2 and the inevitable response from MK we just didn’t have the players on the pitch to hold out.

Absolute none sense, it’s got nothing to do with luck, it’s p1ss poor defending coupled with a keeper who had lost all his confidence after letting in the second goal, he was a complete liability.
You make your own luck by doing the basics.

Opportunity missed - at the start of the season not many people would have expected more than 1 point from the last 2 games but we should have had 4 and if the finishing was better at Ipswich we could have taken all 6. You should not lose if you score 3 goals but having only conceded 5 in the previous 7 games, including 4 clean sheets, and having finally found the back of the net it coincides with us shipping in goals at the other end. I think Brady missed a trick by not bringing Sheehan on when we went 3-2 in front to help manage the game and preserve the lead, it was a game we should never have lost.
At least we are now creating chances and finally taking them which gives us a chance of staying up, will we be good enough to take it?. The next 2 games could answer that question.

+1

We were the better side and must take great heart from that. But next week we need a minimum of 4 points, ideally 6. Can't afford to settle for less at this point.

Marshall is a funny old player. He's gone from being frozen out to being absolutely key to almost all of our best attacking moves. That free kick was a peach and should have led to the winning goal. However, I was disappointed with his reaction in the buildup to the fourth goal. Yes it was never a free kick against him, but it was given. He needed to run at the player and stop him getting the cross in, instead he let him have all the time and space in the world. Maybe he was tiring, but it looked lazy. He needs to work on the defensive side of his game.

Jones, who acquitted himself so well midweek when the Drysdale incident happened, had a poor game. As did Mitchell. Could see both being dropped on Tuesday.

I like to stick up for keepers whenever possible but I'd put the last three down to Mitchell. The first he has to do better, it's gone through him, the second - why did he retreat? That was a dolly catch gather if he just opens his mouth and stands his ground. The last is the worst for me. No striker should be able to finish from four yards out from that length of cross without getting clattered. Not alert nor brave enough for me

Dream on! On what basis?

It’s just his opinion, because it does not reflect yours is poor excuse to tell him to dream on!

Who called the board Policeman......again?  :o

On the basis that we would have played more defensively, protecting the lead we got in the second minute.
Despite what people think on here Curle understands football. He's got all the badges, played for England and captained Manchester City - anyone else on here done anything approaching that?
He decided that the best way for The Cobblers to survive in L1 was to play direct football on an uneven pitch that stifled the abilities of more talented teams. It wasn't pretty to watch but in his view it would be the best way to avoid the drop for a club with a limited budget.
It obviously didn't work out and it's now Jon Brady's job to keep us up.
I've been a season ticket holder longer than most and I desperately want us to stay in L1. I'm worried that Jon Brady will appease the fans with entertaining football but ultimately we will get relegated, rather like Dean Austin.

But would we have got the lead in the second minute, we may not have started on the front foot.....!

All we can do is look at what happened, not speculate what might have happened and present that as fact.

I think it will be a pity if Jon Brady fails to get the results his front foot style deserves. As probably most of us accepts he is on a tight rope; he somehow has to get a winning result as soon as................... He also has a selection problem. He needs to learn from the MK match how to defend/protect leads. Does he go with 5 at the back or persist with four. Which may mean dropping Jones and keeping Bolger on the bench. Can he pick Edmondson who has not really contributed much? Marshall's form since his recall has been an eye opener certainly offensively. I think the midfield just about picks itself and that includes Watson. Critics of Hoskins no doubt maybe dumbfounded by his continued selection. Last not least is the goalkeeper situation; in spite of the random calls for Mitch' to be dropped it seems a bit on the harsh side. After all it may not help team confidence if JB continues with bad game sequence -  drop a player starting will Bolger and next in line is perhaps Mitchell...... so it goes on.

On a tight rope indeed, so we must tread carefully. We mustn't get too exited if we win or too down if we don't but take encouragement from improved performances. We have been in a bad place so let's at least enjoy the better football on show.
JB & Co. have improved the team but he said he is still getting to know the players and finding his best eleven. He made a small tweek replacing Bolger with Horsfall and is weighing up Rose and Edmondson up front and looking for the best balance among his midfielders. In goal the two options Mitchell and Arnold, nothing to choose between them, so good luck with that.
A new manager coming in would have to go through this same process which uses up a few more games, KT has to decide whether to stick or twist, I don't envy him.

If I was KT I'd offer Brady the role until the end of the season but with a couple of clauses. If we stay up it triggers an automatic extension to his contract, otherwise we review at the end of the season and it's at the clubs discretion whether they offer an extension or not. I think that's fair to both parties and gives both a degree of security.

Eminently sensible suggestion.

If we go down, does he then go back to the U18s?

Agree with all this, the major problem in my mind  (like you've pointed out) is definitely the goal keepers. I think he'll have to play Arnold tomorrow (really not sure he's any better) Mitchell looked devoid of all confidence on Saturday. Which then leads to defenders on edge and then it can quickly spread through the team.

I wouldn’t be opposed to keeping him even if we go down, this squad needs a big reset and a massive overhaul, the next appointment is so important and will define the philosophy the club has in trying to go forward.

At this level of football the squad is overhauled most summers because half of the squad is typically out of contract.
That should allow JB or whoever is in charge to bring in the players he needs for the system he wants to play, for what ever reason that didn't happen last year.

Just watched the "highlites" again, absolutely abysmal refereeing for the winning MK goal. Very debateable free kick which could have been awarded to us, not content with penalising us for a 50/50 the ref allows MK to take the kick a good 5Mts away from where the "Offence" took place  and the ball is 100% still moving. Apart from that there was nothing wrong with it !

The Curse Goes On  >:D >:D >:D

If we lose every game playing like Barcelona ultimately I don't think he'll appease the fans any more than KC did. Saturday delivered arguably the most disappointing feeling of the season.
4 or 6 points from the next two will erase that and in a few weeks we can be talking about mid-table obscurity, the East stand and ST prices.

It was a foul, Marshall pulled the player back.  Taking a quick free kick 'in the vicinity' is acceptable unless the official says otherwise beforehand, especially when it's not for a direct shot on goal.  The 'moving ball' is debatable because the player puts his hand on top of the ball before he kicks it. 
To be honest, having watched it, I'd be looking more to blame the experienced player who chose to argue with the official, rather than prevent the free kick being taken quickly.  Especially that late in the game and in such an attacking position.  ;)

Come on Deepcut, you sound like the shop assistant saying "The customer is always right even when he's wrong"  :o ;D

  I know they can't get everything right but that was, arguably, 3 mistakes in a couple of seconds  :-[ 

I was firmly in the camp of "Would rather watch us Lose 4-3 and have a go than watch this"

I will have to stick to my word.

Right though aren't I?   8) ;)

What, even when you're wrong?  ;D

Free kick or not, moving ball or not, you've still got to defend it.

They took the freekick about 10 yards further back than where it was "earned", and by the time the ball reaches the original position of the foul almost everyone including Marshall who had initially remonstrated with the ref, is back in play and running. The only player who was not was Lewington, their player who won the foul who is still on the ground so I don't know how much of an advantage they gained there.

The ball is out wide and in an attempt to stop the cross Morris makes a half hearted jump and turns his back on the ball (again), the ball goes into the area and we can see Watson, Horsfall and Kioso standing motionless in our area with none of them having tracked the run of Charlie Brown.

Clutching at straws to say a moving ball cost us the game!!

The goal should have been disallowed on the grounds that it was scored by a team that have no right to exist at all, end of!

Not according to Law 13 in the FA Rules book which states "All free kicks are taken from the place where the offence occurred" unless I've missed it somewhere  ???

The simple reality they are a fully signed up EFL Clubs so what we think hardly matters.  Am still smarting at that defeat but don't agree with some of the things said retrospectively.

It was a joke Evers, a joke ffs.