Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4809
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – GILLINGHAMA brief look back to Tuesday night even though I could eulogise for hours about what a great night it was. Just about everything went right, Kemp got the party started firing home after some great work from Tommo. Shortly after Max Dean panicked the AFC defence and somehow the defender managed to beat his own keeper, and then Wozza headed home a Robson cross, effectively the game was done in 25 minutes, although we had a few concerns when our rookie keeper made an arse of things trying to pass it out from the back.
We didn’t have to be worried long though as Ref Sunny Gill sent off two of their defenders in quick succession for the same type of offence bringing down Dean and both deemed to be the last man.
The atmosphere in the Cowshed was about the best I’ve seen in years, and fair play to the Dons Action lads for promoting it to death and we can only hope that some of those returning fans come on Saturday….anyway, we have business in hand, so let’s look at Gillingham.
Below is the current record of both teams, plus our home record and the away form of the Gills.
MK Dons (6th) – P 27, W 13, D 6, L 8, GF 45, GA 35, Pts 45.
Gills (8th) – P 27, W 13, D 3, L 11, GF 24, GA 32, Pts 42.
MK Dons (H) (5th) – P 14, W 8, D 3, L 3, GF 24, GA 14, Pts 27.
Gills (A) (7th) – P 13, W 6, D 1, L 6, GF 10, GA 16, Pts 19.
Looking at that Gillingham away record in more detail below are their results with the most recent shown first.
Accrington 1 Gillingham 2
Colchester 0 Gillingham 1
Forest Green 0 Gillingham 0
Tranmere 3 Gillingham 1
Wrexham 2 Gillingham 0
Swindon 0 Gillingham 1
Walsall 4 Gillingham 1
Crewe 2 Gillingham 0
Doncaster 2 Gillingham 1
Grimsby 2 Gillingham 0
Crawley 0 Gillingham 1
Sutton 0 Gillingham 1
Stockport 0 Gillingham 1
A strange set of results there, 6 wins on the road with 5 of them won 1-0 suggesting they are more than comfortable taking the lead and then hanging onto the points, home or away if they score first the trend is they win the game, so we can’t afford for them to get the advantage or else we could be invited to break them down, something we have struggled with on occasions.
Scoring goals is strangely something the Gills have struggled with being the lowest scorers in LG 2 this season with just 24, and on the road the tale is just the same with just 10 goals scored, but as I’ve said they have still managed 6 wins and 1 draw in 13 games.
Top scorer for the Gills is Macauley Bonne with 5 goals and 2 assists from 28 games in this his first season with Gillingham after leaving Charlton Athletic in June 2023.
Top assists man is striker Tom Nicholls who came to Gillingham in December 2022 from Crawley Town for a rumoured £60K. So far he has 4 to his name plus he has chipped in with 3 goals from his 30 games played.
If you’re looking for a returning Don to spoil the day, look no further than Gills Club Captain Shaun Williams who is in his second season for Gillingham. He looks like he has been struggling with injury this term as he often did with us and has only managed 15 games scoring 1 goal, and if he is going to impact on the game it is likely he will come off the bench. For the Dons he played for 3 seasons after we plucked him from League of Ireland team Sporting Fingal.
He totalled 137 games for us scoring 24 goals and moved to Millwall in January 2014 for an undisclosed fee and was the Players Player of the Year and the Player of the Year for the Dons at the time.
Last time we played the Gills in October of this season we lost 2-1 and Gillingham didn’t have a manager, but in November in came former Spurs, Birmingham, and Leicester midfielder Stephen Clemence in his first role as gaffer although he did have the briefest of time at the helm for Sheffield Wednesday as a Caretaker back in 2019.
You have to say he has kept them as a tight well disciplined unit although the goals in numbers are still not coming but he can still boast an almost 47% Win Ratio with a record of P 15, W 7, D 2, L 6.
Historically Gillingham have a one win advantage over us, the full detail of which is shown below with Dons scorers.
2005/06 – Gills 3 Dons 0
2005/06 – Dons 1 Gills 2 (G Smith)
2008/09 – Gills 1 Dons 1 (JPT) (Johnson) (5-4 Dons on pens)
2009/10 – Dons 2 Gills 0 (Easter, Wilbraham)
2009/10 – Gills 2 Dons 2 (McCracken, Easter)
2013/14 – Gills 3 Dons 2 (Bamford 2)
2013/14 – Dons 0 Gills 1
2014/15 – Dons 4 Gills 2 (OG 2, Grigg, McFadzean)
2014/15 – Gills 4 Dons 2 (Cole, Reeves)
2016/17 – Gills 1 Dons 0
2016/17 – Dons 3 Gills 2 (Muirhead, Barnes, Lewington)
2017/18 – Dons 1 Gills 0 (Sow)
2017/18 – Gills 1 Dons 2 (Aneke, GB Williams)
2019/20 – Gills 3 Dons 1 (Gilbey)
2020/21 – Dons 2 Gills 0 (Jerome, Morris)
2020/21 – Gills 3 Dons 2 (Grigg, O’Hora)
2021/22 – Gills 1 Dons 4 (Twine, Kioso, OG, Watters)
2021/22 – Dons 0 Gills 0
2023/24 – Gills 2 Dons 1 (Harrison)
That totals up at P 19, W 8, D 2, L 9, GF 30, GA 31.
I’ve mentioned several times the reverse fixture earlier in the season, but not in great detail……so….. Macauley Bonne and Scott Malone put the Gills 2-0 in front then second half sub Harrison pulled one back 8 minutes from time and Dean nearly scored a spectacular equaliser but for Turner tipping it round the post. The Dons tried hard to equalise, but the only other stat was Dan Harvie being sent off by Ref Drysdale in injury time for a second yellow.
The bookies have marked this one up as a tight affair and I’d suggest they think it’s going to a draw, anyway, whatever you think there is a bit of value on offer.
MK Dons 1/1, Draw 5/2, Gillingham 3/1.
As for a prediction, well I’m going to abstain, I’m just hoping we win, but that first goal is going to be very important.
See You Saturday.
 WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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