THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – MORECAMBE
With the games coming thick and fast over the festive period I’ll probably start streamlining these previews with the quick turnaround expected, but we should be back to normal once we step into January with of course the Transfer Window coming into sharp focus.

On Saturday we have the monster journey up to Morecambe and with just a couple of days to Christmas I think that just might put a few people off going, but if you do make the trip, safe travels.

I think it’s fair to say that Morecambe have been a bit of a surprise package this season. Currently sitting in 8th place in the table they are a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde type of side, you never really know what you are going to get from them, hopefully we catch them on a down day.

Below are the current league standings, plus the relevant home and away form of both clubs.

Morecambe (8th) – P 20, W 9, D 4, L 7, GF 32, GA 29, Pts 31.
Dons (11th) – P 20, W 8, D 6, L 6, GF 33, GA 27, Pts 30.
Morecambe (H) (9th) – P 10, W 5, D 4, L 1, GF 16, GA 8, Pts 19.
Dons (A) (10th) – P 10, W 3, D 3, L 4, GF 16, GA 16, Pts 12.

Below are the details of Morecambe’s home league record, with the most recent game shown first.

Morecambe 1 Stockport 1
Morecambe 1 Newport 2
Morecambe 4 AFC 1
Morecambe 1 Tranmere 0
Morecambe 1 Accrington 1
Morecambe 2 Swindon 2
Morecambe 1 Salford 0
Morecambe 3 Bradford 0
Morecambe 0 Notts County 0
Morecambe 2 Walsall 1

Looking at those results there are one or two decent results especially the 1-1 draw with in form Stockport, but the home game before they recorded their only home loss against Newport County who had previously lost 8 away games this season, so, the more I look at this the more I think it’s going to be a tight game and the Mazuma Stadium might have a chink in its armour and might not be the fortress it looked at first glance.

Historically we have a more than decent record the detail of which is shown below with Dons scorers.

2007/08 – Morecambe 0 MK Dons 1 (Dyer)
2007/08 – MK Dons 1 Morecambe 1 (Wilbraham)
2018/19 – MK Dons 2 Morecambe 0 (Gilbey 2)
2018/19 – Morecambe 4 MK Dons 2 (Agard 2)
2021/22 – Morecambe 0 MK Dons 4 (Eisa, O’Riley, Darling)
2021/22 – MK Dons 2 Morecambe 0 (Darling, Harvie)
2022/23 – Morecambe 0 MK Dons 4 (Grigg 2, Grant, Dennis)
2022/23 – MK Dons 2 Morecambe 0 (LC) (O’Hora, Dennis)
2022/23 – MK Dons 1 Morecambe 0 (Leko)

P 9, W 7, D 1, L 1, GF 19, GA 5.

The danger from Morecambe is very clear in the shape of 20 year old striker Michael Mellon son of Micky Mellon the Oldham Athletic manager who is in his second season on loan from Burnley and currently boasts 15 goals and 2 assists in all comps from 22 appearances. Mellon scored twice on Saturday against Doncaster Rovers in the 5-0 demolition at the Eco-Power Stadium (formerly the Keepmoat Stadium) with two assists from Danny Mayor to put him as the top assists man on 5 this season.

That win at ended a five game winless run for Morecambe, where previously they had only recorded 1 point from the 15 on offer but watching the highlights all I can say is that Donny were tragic in defence.

The gaffer at Morecambe Ged Brannan is someone we definitely have never crossed paths with before. Born in Liverpool almost 52 years ago he had a long career at clubs such as Tranmere, Manchester City, Norwich, Motherwell, Wigan, Dunfermline, Rochdale, Accrington, Morecambe plus several non-league teams before hanging up his boots as a midfielder in 2016 after 575 league games and 52 goals, but that figure is probably substantially higher as there is no record of his non-league exploits.

Brannan then moved to coaching and was Accrington’s U23’s manager before moving to Morecambe to join the first team coaching staff. In mid-November when the then current manager Derek Adams left almost without warning to return to Ross County for his third spell at the club as manager, Brannan subsequently became the Caretaker Boss and was made the permanent choice a week later on an 18 month deal.

His managerial record stands at P 5, W 2, D 1, L 2 with a 40% Win Ratio, but it’s far too early to make any conclusions based on that and we may have a better idea on him and his managerial skills when we meet again in late January at SMK.

On the betting front I have to say I am very surprised we are favourites, but I have said before the bookies are generally cautious around us, and I guess any odds compiler worth his salt will have taken our historical record into account, but those prices don’t look right to me.

Morecambe 2/1, Draw 11/4, MK Dons 13/10.

My prediction this week is this is going to be much closer than the betting suggests as everything pretty much points to a draw, the only conflicting evidence being the history….so for me it’s a draw which I wouldn’t be upset about.

And finally, a weather report, well rain is forecast right up to kick off and it’s either been snowing, sleeting, raining, or a combination of all three since Wednesday, but I still think we will get the greenlight, nearly forgot, take a kite with you.

Safe Travels

Until Next Time.

WD

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

Good review, thanks WellDon; a draw would not be a surprise.
So I was a bit confused to see you predict a 1-0 loss on the armchair prediction thingy; then I found your later prediction of 2-2. Trying to fool us? Or are there 2 (or more) of you?

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I like clean air and low traffic

3 big games in a week.

I would be happy with 6 points out of these 3, anything more would be a sign we are really going to be up there come the end of the season. We haven’t been amazing in the last 3 games we have played- but we got a draw against Grimsby and a win against FGR, and I have already forgotten the battering we took in the papa johns. We are incredibly reliant on Dean and Payne so fingers crossed these two stay fit and in form for these 3 games.

I’m just loading Cowshed Das Boots prediction for him.

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