Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4809
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – MORECAMBEAs usual now the dust has settled my thoughts on our visit to Tranmere. I don’t think I was alone in feeling cautious ahead of our trip to the Wirral, especially when you consider that our last away game at Donny went so badly, but more importantly, the recent home form of Tranmere where they had won their last 5 games at home in the league.
Tension was heightened ahead of kick off with the inclusion of Kelly to the starting lineup, but those fears were unfounded as the only thing to get the better of him was the big deflection off O’Hora, he was of course blameless and looked pretty solid, but you have to admit he didn’t have a busting lot to do as Tranmere put us under no pressure whatsoever as they allowed us to walk the ball out time and time again, and only implemented a high press in the final five minutes.
One or two thought I was a bit heavy handed with my opinions on Lofty, but I did say I thought he looked nervous and felt he would settle down once he got a touch or two under his belt, and I’m happy to say I thought he looked better as the game went on, hopefully there is more to come.
Kemp returning is a real shot in the arm, and I felt he looked good all game although I think he must have left his shooting boots at Swindon, that will change.
In summary I thought that was probably one of, if not the best controlling performances of the season, the only piece missing from the jigsaw was the finishing, again, that will change, and somebody sooner or later is going to get a bloody good hiding.
Wrapping up my thoughts on this game, I could single out several players to heap praise on, but I’m going for Harrison. He’s been on the fringe since coming here, but I think his attitude is spot on and he is fast becoming the “Super Sub”. I’ve watched that last gasp winner multiple times and you have to appreciate his anticipation of the situation, it was a real poacher’s goal as he gambled where it was going and it fell nicely, although you have to say it was a decent finish.
Right, we have wallowed all week in the tears of the Tranmere fans, back at SMK on Saturday and the visit of Morecambe.
Below are the usual stats, both league records, plus our home record, and the away record of Morecambe.
Dons (7th) – P 25, W 12, D 6, L 7, GF 41. GA 32, Pts 42.
Morecambe (16th) – P 25, W 9, D 7, L 9, GF 38, GA 42, Pts 34.
Dons (H) (7th) – P 12, W 7, D 3, L 2, GF 20, GA 11, Pts 24.
Morecambe (A) (15th) – P 12, W 4, D 1, L 7, GF 18, GA 28, Pts 13.
Continuing with the stats, below is a bit more detail on that Morecambe away record, with the most recent game shown first.
Notts Co 5 Morecambe 0
Bradford 2 Morecambe 2
Doncaster 0 Morecambe 5
Wrexham 6 Morecambe 0
Grimsby 3 Morecambe 2
Barrow 1 Morecambe 0
Sutton 2 Morecambe 3
Colchester 1 Morecambe 3
Forest Green 1 Morecambe 2
Gillingham 2 Morecambe 1
Harrogate 2 Morecambe 0
Mansfield 3 Morecambe 0
The results above take a bit of getting your head round, on their day they are capable of putting in a good result, as much as they are getting their backsides slapped, and looking at their home results they are equally confusing, one week losing badly the next getting commendable draws with Stockport and Mansfield and taking AFC apart 4-1, and Bradford 3-0….like I said confusing.
I guess then we need to look where the likely dangers are going to come from, so the main danger in front of goal was Michael Mellon, who luckily for us missed the fixture at their place with injury, and we have dodged the bullet again as he has been recalled by his parent club Burnley and looks destined to be heading for a LG 1 club, possibly Lincoln City, so we better look further afield. Next best is JJ McKeirnan with 7 goals and 2 assists in 27 games one of which was against us in December, but he was not playing on Saturday against Mansfield for some reason so I’m going to abandon my search and throw one out there….former Don Charlie Brown.
Charlie came on after an hour on Saturday to rescue a point and that after another Don Baily Cargill had given Mansfield the lead. Brown played 32 games for the Dons and scored just the 3 goals.
Top assists man for Morecambe is Adam Mayor an England U21 International who has so far 6 assists and 3 goals in 25 games from left midfield and is attracting attention from one or two LG 1 clubs.
At this stage I feel I should say that the Morecambe Wiki pages are a bloody disgrace, months out of date and making my research nearly impossible….sort it out, it’s embarrassing.
The gaffer at Morecambe is Ged Brannan a former midfielder of 12 clubs over a 26 year career including teams like Man City and Norwich City, but the bulk of his games played for Tranmere Rovers.
He took over at Morecambe in his first coaching role in September of this season and just weeks later was thrust into the role of gaffer in late November after the departure of Derek Adams who returned to his first love Ross County for his third spell in charge. At the time Morecambe were 8th in the league and it’s been mainly downhill since then, now finding themselves in 15th.
Brannan’s record doesn’t make for pretty reading and is one of the lowest I’ve ever seen and as much as I hate to say it, if the decline continues the fans just might start rebelling and call for his head, and that despite the ink still being wet on his 18 month contract.
His record to date stands at P 11, W 2, D 4, L 5 with a Win Ratio of just over 18%.
Our historical record against Morecambe is exceptional and one if not the best we have against any club in the EFL. The details plus scorers for the Dons are listed below.
2007/08 – Morecambe 0 MK Dons 1 (LG2) (Dyer)
2007/08 – MK Dons 1 Morecambe 1 (LG2) (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)
2023 24 – Morecambe 1 MK Dons 3 (Dean 2, Tomlinson)
P 10, W 8, D 1, L 1, GF 22, GA 6.
We have of course only just played Morecambe on December 23rd where we won 3-1 at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium. Dean scored a brace that day with Tomlinson also scoring and JJ McKiernan scoring for the Shrimps.
The stats show we had 60% of the possession and 20 shots but we didn’t have it all our way, at 1-1 Morecambe were looking dangerous, but we wrestled back control, and the Tomlinson goal knocked the wind out of the home team’s effort, a 96th minute goal from Dean finally confirmed the destination of the points, and just to wrap things off Willaims was the only entry into the ref’s notebook.
As you would expect with the current form and the history we are red hot favourites to take the points, and you will be pleased to note I’m going to resist having a bet on us, so that should help.
MK Dons 8/15, Draw 18/5, Morecambe 11/2.
Looking at the team. at the time of writing, we have had nothing official about the incoming youngster from Villa to fill the void between the posts following the loan move for Mac to Stevenage, surely not even we can be dumb enough to release a keeper and leave ourselves one option…..oh hang on ….we have before when Franco stepped in against AFC. I’m though expecting the news will break soon and he will start against the Shrimps.
What I do want to say is I was amongst the first around two months ago to suggest we could do better between the sticks. I wanted change, but I’m not really sure about putting our destiny in the hands of someone so young and largely untested, but we have to trust the gaffer, and as someone he has signed before you would think he is confident of his abilities…time will be the judge.
As for a prediction, well I am going for us, I’m not fussed how, I just want the 3 points.
See you Saturday.  WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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