Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4809
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – AFCTaking the briefest of looks back at Saturday, I’m still not sure how the team succumbed after a dominating first half. No doubt about it, the errors were down to us, a dodgy debut for a rookie keeper, the poor pass from Lewie and the stumble by Bate, the half arsed attempt by O’Hora to stop Charlie Brown, the poor finishing, Lofthouse not able to beat his man and get a decent cross in, but the thing that I think is top of that is how slowly MW reacted to the changes in the game.
I’ll admit I thought we had developed and improved in the last couple of months, but in the last three games we have IMHO played just two decent halves of football, and that is very concerning.
MW has a lot of work to do before Tuesday, Dons fans will forgive most things, but this sort of performance against AFC will not wash, anyway, on with the preview.
I posed a question at the start of the season, ………when the fixtures come out, what game or games do you look for first, personally mine is the last away game of the season, but I would think home or away, AFC is top of many peoples lists.
Over the seasons the significance of this fixture has diminished a bit, but it still offers fans the bragging rights, but apparently if we win it doesn’t count because we are not a proper club….who knew.
Also consider not many of the players on Tuesday night will have played in a fixture like this before, and again that waters down the feelings, but its sure to be a passionate night at SMK for the fans, and I wonder if Winkie will give his usual AFC speech just to let the players know what it means to the fans.
Below are the current standings of both clubs plus the away record of AFC plus our home record.
MK Dons (7th) – P 26, W 12, D 6, L 8, GF 42, GA 33, Pts 42.
AFC (10th) – P 26, W 10, D 9, L 7, GF 41, GA 30, Pts 39.
MK Dons (H) (7th) – P 13, W 7, D 3, L 3, GF 21, GA 13, Pts 24.
AFC (A) (5th) – P 14, W 5, D 6, GF 15, GA 12, Pts 21.
Looking closer at that AFC away record below are their league results with the most recent game shown first.
Wrexham 2 AFC 0
Forest Green 1 AFC 1
Crawley 1 AFC 2
Salford 0 AFC 0
Gillingham 1 AFC 0
Morecambe 4 AFC 1
Barrow 0 AFC 0
Mansfield 0 AFC 0
Harrogate 0 AFC 1
Walsall 1 AFC 3
Newport 2 AFC 2
Sutton 0 AFC 3
Colchester 0 AFC 2
Grimsby 0 AFC 0
The stand out results there are the win at Harrogate, although Harrogate are a much better team on the road, but the 0-0 draws away to Mansfield and Barrow are significant, as is the 1-1 draw at FGR, and the 4-1 drubbing by Morecambe.
Just in case you hadn’t noticed they went 8 games at the start of the season without losing on the road, but in the last 6 games have won just the one game and that at Crawley Town.
Historically ….who mentioned history…..we are having the best of it, the full record with Dons scorers is shown below.
2012/13 – Dons 2 AFC 1 (FAC) (Gleeson, Otsemobor)
2014/15 – Dons 3 AFC 1 (LC) (McFadzean, Powell, Afobe)
2014/15 – Dons 2 AFC 3 (JPT) (Powell, Afobe)
2016/17 – Dons 1 AFC 0 (Bowditch)
2016/17 – AFC 2 Dons 0
2017/18 – AFC 0 Dons 2 (Seager, Ariyibi)
2017/18 – Dons 0 AFC 0
2019/20 – AFC 2 Dons 2 (LC) (McGrandles, Kasumu) MK 4-2 on pens.
2019/20 – Dons 2 AFC 1 (Nombe, Healey)
2020/21 – Dons 1 AFC 1 (Fraser)
2020/21 – AFC 0 Dons 2 (O’Riley, Sorinola)
2021/22 – Dons 1 AFC 0 (O’Riley)
2021/22 – AFC 1 Dons 1 (Parrott)
That’s a record of P 13, W 8, D 3, L 2, GF 19, GA 12.
Top scorer for AFC is Ali Al Hamadi with 16 goals and 7 assists in 27 games but thankfully he is on International duty at the Asia Cup meaning that James Tilley from right midfield is next on the list in his first season at the Meccano Stadium.
On Wednesday AFC signed 20 year old striker John-Kymani Gordon on loan from Crystal Palace having previously been in the Carlisle side that gained promotion in the Play Off final, and also played the first half of this season with Cambridge Utd playing 19 games with no goals for his efforts. There are high hopes for this youngster at Palace and even at 20 he has got a fair amount of experience, and I would imagine AFC will have no problems dropping him straight into the starting lineup.
The AFC gaffer is Johnnie Johnson and unusually for them, he had no previous connections with AFC. As a former midfielder he played 499 games scoring 76 goals for teams such as Tottenham, Watford, and Derby County but the bulk of his games were for Colchester Utd and the Karl Robinson managed Charlton where he hung up his boots at the end of the 2017/18 season following a 19 year career.
Following the departure of Robbo, Johnson stepped up from his role as the then Assistant to caretaker on two occasions what with Lee Bowyer and Nigel Adkins going in quick succession. Johnson took on the main gig in December 2021 following a good run, but things turned sour very quickly and he was shown the door the following May.
With less than 2 weeks out of work Johnson was secured by AFC on a 2 year deal and to date he has overseen 91 games with a record of W 31, D 34, L 47, giving him a Win Ratio of just over 34% although that does go up 4 points when considering his time at Charlton.
The betting has us as favourites, but in a game like this it means very little although our price has shortened since our defeat which is a bit surprising.
MK Dons 6/5, Draw 13/5, AFC 12/5.
I’ll take a win, but I think it’s more likely going to be a draw, but one thing for sure, it’s going to be a close affair.
I’m going to leave you with this, we are dominating games for large periods but failing to put them away, if we come up short this season, that will be the main thing I remember.
Don’t be late on Tuesday and bring your singing voice.
 WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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