THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

THE BIG GAME PREVIEW – PORT VALE
The game on Tuesday night away to Lincoln City could hardly be described as a classic and it was hard to tell that the Dons were struggling for points and really needed to be taking the game to their opponents so negative was their approach to the game.

Even a worldie from Lincoln early in the game failed to wake a lethargic Dons team that almost appeared to have accepted their fate, and to highlight this, on one occasion we had a freekick halfway in the Lincoln half and we played it all the way back to Cumming, it was unbelievable in the extreme.

Jacko after the game confessed he had given a heated halftime team talk and it appeared to galvanise the Dons into actually making the Imps keeper earn his wages. The introduction of Devoy certainly helped, as did Lincoln trying to preserve their lead, and with any hope almost lost, Maghoma flicked out a leg at an 89th minute Holland corner, it took a small deflection and looped over Rushworth into the Imps net, earning us a very welcome point.

We now enter a crucial period of playing teams around us and they are vital to our LG 1 survival but we cannot approach them in the same style as Tuesday night as I feel we are much better talking the game to teams from the start. It is also concerning that we are only really ticking for 45 minutes of the game, recently we have fallen off a cliff in the second half, against Lincoln we finished strongly which was a pleasant change, but we have to perform for 90 minutes.

Up next then we have Port Vale on Saturday at Vale Park for what looks like a tricky little fixture.

Port Vale are currently in 16th place in the league table and in recent weeks have slipped down the rankings with just one win in their last nine games and just 4 points from a very busy February that saw them play 7 games.

Below are the league records of both clubs including the home record of Vale and the away record of the Dons.

Port Vale (16th) – P 34, W 11, D 7, L 16, GF 34, GA 49, Pts 40.
MK Dons (22nd) – P 34, W 8, D 6, L 20, GF 31, GA 53, Pts 30.
Port Vale (H) (14th) – P 17, W 6, D 4, L 7, GF 17, GA 22, Pts 22.
MK Dons (A) (11th) – P 17, W 6, D 2, L 9, GF 20, GA 28, Pts 20.

The 6 recorded home wins for Vale have come against Fleetwood Town, Shrewsbury Town, Lincoln City, Charlton Athletic, Morecambe, and Exeter City. Their 7 home defeats have come at the hands of Portsmouth, Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Peterborough United, Barnsley, and Wycombe Wanderers.

A couple of other results on the road for Vale make you raise your eyebrows, a 2-1 win at Derby County and a 2-0 win away to Plymouth Argyle, plus of course Vale are one of only two teams we have beaten at home this season, the other being Forest Green Rovers.

That win against the Valiant’s was way back in August of this season where we won 2-1 on a Tuesday night with Bradley Johnson scoring a brace of goals, Ellis Harrison scored a late consolation in the 93rd minute to make it an uncomfortable finish to the game. For those that like all the facts, Jack Tucker was the only Dons player booked and the attendance was 7,041.

Below is the history of our previous meetings with Port Vale, all games being LG1 unless stated.

2004/05 – Port Vale 3 MK Dons 2 (Harding 2)
2004/05 – MK Dons 1 Port Vale 1 (Platt)
2005/06 – MK Dons 0 Port Vale 0
2005/06 – Port Vale 3 MK Dons 1 (Platt)
2013/14 – MK Dons 3 Port Vale 0 (Gleeson, Reeves, Bamford)
2013/14 – Port Vale 1 MK Dons 0
2014/15 – Port Vale 3 MK Dons 4 (FAC) (Afobe 2, Green, C Baker)
2014/15 – MK Dons 1 Port Vale 0 (C Baker)
2014/15 – Port Vale 0 MK Dons 0
2016/17 – MK Dons 0 Port Vale 1
2016/17 – Port Vale 0 MK Dons 0
2018/19 – Port Vale 0 MK Dons 2 (LG2) (Aneke, Agard)
2018/19 – MK Dons 1 Port Vale 1 (LG2) (Wheeler)
2019/20 – MK Dons 0 Port Vale 1 (FAC)
2022/23 – MK Dons 2 Port Vale 1 (Johnson 2)

So, nothing much between the teams with honours even at P 15, W 5, D 5, L 5, GF 17, GA 15, with the additional stat thrown in that both teams have failed to score on six occasions in this fixture.

The Valiant’s last game was away on Saturday versus Bolton Wanderers where Ellis Harrison recorded the first away goal in over 16 hours of football at the UNIBOL Stadium, but Bolton gathered their composure to run out 2-1 winners.

Welsh International Harrison joined Vale in August of this season from Fleetwood Town and is currently their top scorer in all competitions with 9 goals in 23 games with left wing back David Worrall topping the assists list with 5 so far this season.

45 year old Darrell Clarke is the gaffer at Vale a position he has held since February 2021 where he moved from Walsall with Vale having to pay compensation.

As a midfielder he played 482 games scoring 63 goals in a period from 1995 until 2013 for Mansfield Town, Hartlepool United, Stockport County, Port Vale, Rochdale, and finally Salisbury City in the Conference South Division becoming player manager three years before hanging his boots up.

In addition, he has managed Bristol Rovers and as we have already said Walsall and only once has he dipped below that line in the sand I’m always ranting about, that of the 33% Win Ratio equating to an average manager.

Actually, Clarke has decent numbers currently boasting a career 44% Win Ratio, and the same number for his time at Port Vale. His career stats show he has overseen 579 games with a record of W 255, D 137, L 187, his record at Vale is 51 wins from 116 games, with 41 defeats and 24 draws.

Betting – I’d suggest this is a game to avoid if you like placing accumulators and I doubt it will attract much attention in the bookies amongst regular punters. What I am surprised about is Vale are strongish favourites and we are attractively priced, so if you fancy having a wager on us, and it pays off you will be well rewarded for your faith.

Port Vale 21/20, Draw 5/2, MK Dons 16/5

Prediction – Well I hope you are sitting comfortably but I am going for a Dons win, and it’s rare that I have placed my faith in the lads to get a result in the last few months, so I’m going for a 2-1 Dons win.

Team News – Team news is always vague coming out of SMK, but I’m going to be promoting Devoy starting in place of Robson. Devoy was back in Ireland last week for a family bereavement, so Robson was drafted in with the Irishman missing a few training sessions. Devoy is a raw talent, but he is surely the better option in the engine room alongside McEachran.

Safe travels to all making their way to Vale Park.

WD

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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight

Vaguely plausible sort of analysis.
I'm glad you have been 'cured' of that "enjoy the game" nonsense - which was probably libellous anyway.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

I think that early goal Tuesday night took the wind out of our sails, we never seemed to recover from that setback and we were far too cautious for the rest of that half.

Second half, after the bollocking, we pretty much dictated the game and deserved a draw, good to see us not running out of steam in the last twenty minutes.

Importantly on Saturday is to score first, it might take away the panic and pressure of chasing a game, which has been this season’s preferred option

Based on our 15 game history against them, we are 20-20 on points (if you convert all games into 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), so therefore I see this game being 1.3-1.3 as if you divide 20 points each by 15 games you get that number.

I would take a point (three) from this game.

Mate you always make me chuckle....thanks for that.

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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight

So we got 7K on a Tuesday in August. Even on a Saturday now we would struggle to get that. God knows what we would get on a Tuesday now. That is the alarming part of all this. Still here starts the unbeaten run in March that will save our season. #keepthefaith #iamadeludedcunt