THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Just seen this report from a Bury fan on their forum which I thought was very nice.
A difficult one to sum up IMO. Early goal clearly knocked the stuffing out of us, and for the next 20 minutes or so, they cut through us like a hot knife through butter. Several times. Could have been 4-0 by the 25 minute mark, but then we seemed to get our act together. I thought from around then to H/T, we were honestly the better side. Sadly, either the final ball, or final shot was lacking. Smith continued to shoot like he's never played football before. Unfortunately, the other aspects of his game that were so good & saved his arse against Oxford just were not there today.

How bloody good is Osman Sow?! When they first set up in the first half, I thought he looked isolated, but it didn't matter! On that showing, a phenomenal player. MK Dons the best footballing side I've seen here so far this season. Some absolutely brilliant one touch stuff from them. We seemed to try to match them at times with quick give & go passing, but we couldn't pull it off anywhere near as well as they could - always ended up misplacing a pass.

Another game without a proper, recognised striker on the bench. (I've seen nothing from Bunn to suggest he can do that yet) Absolutely bonkers. Really hope Aldred is OK. We suddenly look very short of numbers at CB. All in all, you can't afford so many off-colour performances when you're coming up against a side like that. As much as they COULD have been miles ahead by the 25 minute mark, we had easily enough chances to score two goals. Easily. But they did deserve to win. Too much was just "off" today.

What is encouraging is our defence, another clean sheet and Neilson has a nice problem on his hands in selection, once Walsh is fit that's even more of a headache.

The bench also is looking strong nowadays, Sow is nearing full fitness and chips in with a goal today.

Tough game v Bradford next week, if we can win that then we could be very near top six

Brilliant touch from their poster there but he hasnt given bury as much credit as I came away giving them. That being said though they just werent clinical when the opportunities arose. Thought they worked really hard from about 25 minutes.

For us though they are right, for the first 25 minutes the pass move, 1 and 2 touch short passing was phenomenal and forward thinking with intent. Some of sows footwork, strength and direct running was great. Ariyibi is the best winger ive seen at stadiummk since god knows when, lloyd dyer maybe. Not seen a player give that much defensively for a while as an attack minded, skillful winger causing them no end of problems when he was on the run it was a joy to see how much hes come on. Robbie is turning him into a polished diamond which while we will be set to say goodbye to him can only be good for our credibility again.

Special mention for tshibola, saw a derogatory comment by toby again putting him down ... what a load of bollox ... best player on the pitch today imo. Literally everywhere the ball was he was no further than 5/10 yards away in and out of possession. Quality performance and despite a couple of misplaced passes he gave it everything and was solid. Battled all over the park, got into them, constantly picked the ball up and looked to drive forward and intentful passes. Pleased for the lad, hope he gets the recognition he deserves after that performance, showed real character.

My only 2 critiques today were scotty wooton , love him, but he was the number one catalyst for long balls and a couple of occasions put us in trouble playing it short. Imo his defending was top notch but needs to work on distribution from the back. Another was callum as good as he was and made up for it by ensuring nothing came of it did a fair few times get beat on the outside and maybe gave their winger a little too much space. That though is being over critical for criticals sake.

As a team though thats the most pleasing performance ive seen. Everyone battled. We scarcely played aimless balls. Sow was a handful. Ariyibi produced some highlight reel moments. Tshibola put in a corner turnining performance without criticism. Eel came through the game unscathed. Nicholls shows no sign of letting up and once again played smart. Aneke looked dangerous with his limited minutes and made an impression. The passing, movement, speed of play and cohesion was breathtaking. All round enjoyable, professional display.

Shoot, sorry, got carried away and didnt realise the length of the post

Good assessment, thanks.

Sometimes it needs more than one paragraph to sum up a game

Cheers, tbf im notorious for waffling

Really good game though, we were well drilled and really looked to have cohesion and a clear game plan. I really dont think weve given robbie enough credit for our start. Looking back weve been up against it with selection issues and a teething period against the very best in the league, but tbh I can see clear progression and another manager and team might have lost their heads but weve been resilient and I see more progress.

Let's not get too carried away. Sow was awful on Tuesday v Northampton...

Great result hello everybody hugo is here.

Weird thing I want to give a mention to, and they deserve praise as we are always quick to dish out the hate but their stewards were fantastic. Absolutely starving at half time and I forgot to get cash out for food and the steward let me out of the stadium around the corner to go to the ATM and get some cash out for a pie. Class. Loved yesterday. Great day out

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As Beardhidesboy64 has mentioned, some of our passing in the early parts of the game was sensational and we were tearing them apart. It was really good to see as its something we have lacked all season, so at least we now know they have it within their locker!

We could and maybe should have been at least 2-0 up by half time but I also wouldn't go as far as saying we wasted chances as that would be too critical.

Bury did come back into it and should have equalised to make it 1-1 but for a poor finish. They saw a fair bit of the ball and our second goal was against the run of play. Upson for me was a little sloppy at times, as were others and we gave the ball away in very dangerous areas quite a few times. Better teams will punish us for this but I suspect this is why Bury are where they are in the table, as they played some good football but were not clinical enough. Same goes for AFC.

Overall, a good performance and the most promising one yet. Cut out the needless errors and poor distribution from the back and we'll stand a good chance this season.

Also to add, Aneke was a beast when he came on. Caused them all sorts of problems with his strength and pace and was unlucky not to score. If he stays fit, then he'll be one of the best players in this league. Didn't look like he had been out for 6 months at all