THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

THE MELTDOWN – PORT VALE
For some reason, in a moment of weakness, I decided to go, and I regretted it within minutes of the kick off.

It was a pleasant enough journey up, we stopped at Burton Services for a quick brew, met up with fellow sufferers and had a nice chat with three Dons regulars who were parked in the next bay, and looking back now I don’t think any of us said anything positive about the players, Wacko Jacko or the SMK regime.

Getting to the ground the mood was equally as low, and again I cannot recall one person who had any faith left in their bodies, and if you know me I talk a lot so I got a pretty good snapshot of the current feeling, even some that I’ve always believed thought the sun shone out of Pete’s arse, were resigned to relegation, and they were critical of every aspect from top to bottom.

I’ve said before it is incredible how far this club has sunk both on and off the field, and relegation, which is more than on the cards, will herald an even bigger exodus, especially if someone stupidly decides to increase the season ticket price.

Whoever is responsible for this should be held to account, it is incredibly naïve to believe that you can sell the likes of Twine, Darling etc, etc, replace them with largely young inexperienced players, and be able to replicate or come remotely close to what we achieved last season, furthermore it is disrespectful to the fans that left so much money at the club during Covid and in addition pay Premiership prices at the stadium concessions to the degree in a survey in a national paper this week we at SMK pay more for a pint that every other club in the EFL, and only West Ham and Arsenal charging more.

Their plan …whatever it was has failed miserably, we have sold the family silver, the vaults at SMK are bare, fans are leaving in droves both home and away and it’s just accelerating the cost cutting making the whole shit mess worse.

Further naive is this mentality is only going to make it worse, relegation will accelerate the exodus, and of course we can wave goodbye to the mega away attendances from some of our rivals that bring 6-7k followings, there are no Sheffield Wednesday’s or Ipswich Town’s in League 2, the best we can hope for is a half decent followings from Notts County or Wrexham, but we better get used to a regular 200-300 from the likes of Harrogate Town and Hartlepool.

The Manning/Sweeting debate has still got legs, for the record I was one of few that didn’t want him sacked, but only because I couldn’t see anything better out there, or should I correctly say someone who we were willing to fork out for, surely you realised Manning’s replacement wasn’t going to be any great shakes, didn’t you realise that sold to the fans with the label firmly attached saying “we want to give someone a chance in the game, it’s the MK Way “ , well its slang for we are not going to pay much, and that guy with the LG 1 experience and has been in a relegation dog fight, well you can forget him, but what puzzles me is there are plenty still willing to believe it all and keep sucking it up with such gusto, I will say though some are finally seeing the light.

We…..apparently, are in a mini league for survival, well it was bloody hard to tell that today, even I stupidly believed it and put £10 on us to win, I must be off my bloody head, we are supposed to be fighting for survival yet we managed one shot on target against an average midtable side that has a goal difference of -14.

I’m not going to say much about the game as there is so little to eulogise over, in my book Cumming and Watson were our two best players with possibly Maghoma, but that was about it. Max Dean bless him tried, but its too early from him and it just shows you how desperate things have got that we are pinning our survival hopes on someone that is hardly out of short trousers.

The loss of Leko who is a bloody fool for kicking out in the Lincoln game, and of course McEachran was a hammer blow but please nobody start cursing our luck, these things happen, the teams that cope best in these situations are the ones that will survive.

I’m singling out Johnson today, but I could have picked at least half a dozen others. He was appalling, in the first 10 minutes he gave away three fouls, gave away the ball three times, mis-headed backwards and was generally embarrassing, please someone tell me we are not paying this guy a wage…. he is tragic.

Someone told me today that when PW did the PR stunt at Wednesday and sat with the fans, he said that the club is excited about this team, yes I had to get him to repeat it, excited….about what FFS, that we didn’t pay much for them, or we don’t pay them much in the way in wages, because I can’t think of anything else.

OK then Jacko…out of his depth, it looks that way, but honestly I don’t think Pep, Jurgen, and Mourinho working as joint managers could get anything out of this lot, so we have to think he has been thrown under the bus and they just crossed their fingers and hoped for a bit of luck, but sadly this guy is on target to become MK’s worst ever manager. I can see “Dan the Plan” proudly telling people he has the worst record ever and in comes Jacko shouting “someone hold my beer”.

So are we going down, well it’s still early to say, but that’s another game gone, another opportunity lost, and our chances are getting fewer and fewer, and I think we need about another 15-20 points in 11 games, and considering we are averaging 10 points in 12 games currently its hard to see. We are points adrift, games adrift, and the only thing looking likely to keep us up is a lorry load of Viagra, and I think we still may struggle…Viagra is good, but it doesn’t work miracles.

I honestly don’t care if we do get relegated anymore, I’ve wasted too much time, money, and emotion to care anymore, and like many I have had the enthusiasm sucked out of me, I’m weary, and fed up, and I feel cheated, and the team I love has got itself in this state through ill thought out strategies and policies and its unforgivable.

Last one out, turn the lights off.

WD

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

Couldn't put it better myself. This sums up exactly how I'm feeling. Despite our relegation edging closer week by week, my emotions seem to wane.
The Neilson era was toxic and kept many people away. This feels worse for me, as every aspect of the club has nosedived. The naivety from the club is staggering.

Have to agree it is looking bleak yesterday sadly confirmed what most of us thought we really are as bad as VFTOS has been telling us


The microphone is in place The Fat Lady is gargling and learning her words

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2022/23 Runner up: How Crap, Prediction league and football in general
COYD

I went yesterday. Another ground I hadn’t been at and not too long a journey. On the positive front, found a decent pub for lunch and arrived at Vale Park to be greeted by some properly friendly stewards and staff. And then the game started, and for the whole 90 minutes there was nothing at all to be happy about. We spent the whole afternoon giving the ball away, being second to every loose ball and committing ridiculous fouls which saw us earn three yellows including Tucker managing to get one deep inside the Vale half on his way back from a corner. Jules got booked and should have been off 20 seconds later - ref missed it and went to consult his linesman but he had missed it too. Could get the same outcome as Leko when they review it.

Have spent most of this season tramping round the country believing there are four worse teams in League One than us, but there aren’t and it looks from here beyond us to get enough points to catch up the gap that is now opening up.

As and WD says, I don’t care any more that we are going down. It is so badly broken that I can’t see how on earth the club functions going forward. No season ticket renewal process yet, but it must be coming in March. Cost of living crisis and weekly shocking lack of entertainment will conspire to deliver a horrible outcome to that - no easy one season road back from League Two this time.

Very much this.

I tried to remain positive on here as long as possible, but I've jumped from the pure joy of last year to not that fussed. No anger or sadness really. Just apathy.

But it happens to all clubs, despite what owners may or may not say , and we go again next year. Hopefully we learn from the lessons we should have learnt before

I wonder whether the players are in the same place. A creeping sense of inevitability would explain the level of individual performance yesterday.

I hope they still have the ability to fight and believe.

As usual WD is spot on. Remember the stages of grief - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.

We're fucked.

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.

Indeed it does. I'm unable to renew my ST for next year because of work and family commitments but I will do plenty of awaydays and buy a ticket for the home games I can make. I've been resigned to relegation for some time now.

This sort of shit patch happens to every lower league club at some point. Thankfully we are not about to go bust like Southend or Bury (RIP) but it's bleak. Anyway, who knows? In a season or two we may have an enjoyable time near the top of League Two...dare I jinx it!

Agree with of the above posts. Can we just end the season now if like my Saturdays back.