Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4841
Location: In the Armchair.
|
THE MELTDOWN – COLCHESTER UNITEDFirst things first, what I or anyone else come to that could say about Dean Lewington and his amazing career, we could never do it justice, he is in reality a dinosaur in the game, and I say that with the greatest respect, something we will never see again, and I think its right when people say his record will never be beaten, it won’t, and nobody can take that bit of history away from Lewie, us the fans, and the MK Dons.
If you were there today you witnessed history, and we will continue to witness it every time he pulls on the shirt between now and the day comes to hang up his boots.
I am immensely proud he is my captain and leader, and that comes from someone who first described him as a slow old donkey with the first touch of a trampoline…. but I am happy to admit I was wrong, I learnt, as have hundreds of strikers and opposition fans over the years.
Undoubtedly it will be a sad day when he does give up, and sad old buggers like me might even shed a tear, but it will be tears of pride.
Lastly I want to mention DonsAction who crowdfunded the banner in honour of Lewie, a fantastic effort by everyone involved, you are the future of this club, and you should be proud of what you achieve and keep on achieving.
The game then….still no Harvie and Leko came in for Grant, what was the thinking behind it we will never know, some have suggested that it was MW giving Leko a last look and seeing if he was part of the New Year Masterplan, but one thing I did feel was when Leko had the ball he wasn’t his normal extravagant self, well certainly not in the first half, and the jury is out for me on the Leko 2.1 version, and as strange as it sounds I’d like to see a bit more, I was all for getting rid, now I’m not so sure, it’s down to the Crawley game.
Looking closer at the game, I did start to get concerned early on, when you’ve seen the number of games over the years I have you get to learn when it’s going to be a long old afternoon, and this game had all the hallmarks.
We engineered some great opportunities, but we forgot our shooting boots and several shot flew just wide, and you knew they were close as Goodman in the Col U goal was throwing himself at everything, if they were well wide he wouldn’t have bothered. Then we had the double save from Gilbey and you just started worrying it wasn’t going to be our day, the Tomlinson shot hitting the post only compounded the worry.
It was clear the Col U plan was to soak up the pressure and take a point or even better hit us on the break as we committed more and more players forward, and credit where credit is due the sweeping one touch move that started down their defensive left was something you had to admire, I’m just glad we didn’t see any more of it.
With time running out MW decided to throw caution to the wind, three at the back, on came Mo and 10 minutes later Harrison joined the battle. Again, we got close, and a few times the Col U defence had to clear the ball anywhere and quickly, but not long after it looked like we could have really screwed up.
We were bombarding them, the ball broke and they hit us at speed with us left in the wake, thankfully their striker saw glory in his eyes and shot straight at Mac, lucky for us he never squared the ball to the guy who was on his own screaming for the ball.
With just a handful of minutes left I turned to my “Football Friend” and said, “at their place right now we were losing 2-1, and we know how that turned out”. I was possibly trying to convince myself all was not lost, but thankfully it came from the unlikely source of Harrison in the 89th minute.
Payne swung over a freekick into the box and Harrison stabbed it home……. what a bloody relief, and I don’t think I’ve seen a goal celebration like that at home in ages by both fans and players.
Whilst I’m sure we would have loved to see out the 4 minutes injury time without too much drama there was still time to see Tom Hopper have one come off the bar and then be ruled offside seconds later as he put the ball in the net.
Thankfully the final whistle was blown by one of the worst refs we have seen this season, I was thinking coming from the MLS he would be half decent, but he was tragic at times….and have you ever seen anyone pull a yellow card out of their top pocket with such speed and enthusiasm.
The closing scenes saw a reluctant Lewie assist MW with the now compulsory three point celebration, and thankfully many stayed behind to give Lewie just one more show of appreciation.
So that’s Stage 2 of the Festive Masterplan complete and up into the playoff spots for the first time in months and I think the one thing I will take from this game is we just don’t give up and we find a way to win.
I felt exhausted with all the emotion as I was walking out, but still looking forward to Friday night against Crawley Town under the lights, hopefully its more stress free.
Choooo, Choooo 4 now.  WD
_________________
Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
Last edited by WellDon on Wed Dec 27, 2023 8:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
|
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
