THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

APL PREDICTION LEAGUE & REVIEW – WIGAN ATHLETIC
I don’t think many people realistically thought we would get anything out of the game yesterday, although some hopes might have been raised after the Blackburn fightback, but in pre-match chats with several of the travelling faithful it seemed more of a case of this was a game to nothing, so anything we could get out of it would be an unexpected bonus.

Unfortunately for us, Wigan showed us in no uncertain terms they were a class above anything we have played this season, and the gulf between us looked even greater than the actual twenty odd places in the table, they were quicker, stronger, better organised, more determined and I doubt one of our players came out on top against his Wigan counterpart.

It was for me a case of and in the words of the late great Jim Bowen, “Look at what you could have won” in the shape of former Dons favourite Will Grigg who without too much fuss chalked up a hatrick against a charitable Dons defensive line. It seems a great shame we couldn’t stump up the additional £200k needed to secure his services, but in reality, we couldn’t really afford him, and it would probably have had dire consequences to our meagre pay scale amongst the rest of the team, but it certainly adds some prospective of where we are in the pecking order, and I know I’ve said it before, but if Winkie’s fantasy of Prem football is to come to fruition, the acquisition of players like Grigg is going to be a minimum requirement.

There were very few positives to be taken from the game, the only real highlights for Dons fans being the incredible save by Nicholls and the well worked goal taken by Brittain, but other than that there was little to cheer.

Looking at the minus side, we looked so vulnerable yesterday at the back, with only really Lewie and Ward coming out of it with any sort of credit, Williams as I’ve said before is nowhere near the player of last season and Landell gives the feeling of an accident waiting to happen, as does Wootton who he replaced. Again, Agard had control and strength issues, easily pushed off the ball and Thomas-Asante for me should get the nod as he looked so much better than the struggling Agard. For large periods I didn’t think Chuks looked interested and I’m just a little bit confused why you would bring on Ugbo in the final minutes, when getting some game time into Reo-Coker may have been more beneficial as we may need his services before the season ends, if we are not going to use him what’s the point of having him on the bench in place of someone capable of changing a match like Nesbitt.

You don’t need me to tell you, but I’m going to anyway, the midweek games will have a huge say in our endeavours to beat the drop, so all we can do is sit tight and keep our fingers crossed, but regardless of those results, if we don’t win on Saturday, somebody better give the fat lady a nudge and tell her to clear her throat, she may be needed.

Looking at the APL, we had a standard 36 predictions for this game, with just two people predicting Callum Brittain would get our goal, well done to APMKDon and Abritt 6564, they both get 10 points each, the remainder of the 17 winning points this week all picked up two points for predicting a Wigan victory.

There were just 50 points scored this week.

Once again, the following predictors must make their predictions to me via PM before the midnight Friday deadline, for the rest of the predictors, the deadline remains at 2pm on Saturday.

SG19 Cowshed das Boot
Scribble
FilthyDon
Southstander
BertieWoostersDonsClub
Camdenite

The current APL League Table is below with just 5 games left and a maximum of 75 points up for grabs, the Doncaster thread will be out tomorrow morning (Monday).

Still keeping the faith.

WellDon

THE APL HALL OF FAME
3 – MK59DON, Southstander
2 – FilthyDon, Camdenite, Blodwyn, Scribble, Dazzerdon, Greg, BertieWoostersDonsClub, Oldfarmdons
1 – mkdonsdan4, BuzzardDon, kempstondons6, ChaChaDon, epdon, Kowalski, Grundit, Sparky, Bloxham Don, Just A Don, Woburn, Peterr, APMKDon, Steampunk Don, Fraser, RedDotDon, SG19 Cowshed das Boot, Matthew. Nobbydon, WellDon, Mightydons, Oldbloke, chrisdon

APL LEAGUE TABLE 2017/18
158 POINTS – SG19 Cowshed das Boot
153 POINTS – Scribble
138 POINTS - FilthyDon
136 POINTS – Southstander
125 POINTS – BertieWoostersDonsClub, Camdenite
118 POINTS - Sparky
117 POINTS – Nobbydon
113 POINTS - Woburn
101 POINTS – TomMac&Ernie
93 POINTS - Greg
91 POINTS – SteelbackDon
85 POINTS – Bloxham Don, Oldfarmdons
84 POINTS – mightydons, Blodwyn
81 POINTS – Just A Don, donnette
80 POINTS - Bill
78 POINTS – Fraser
77 POINTS – chrisdon
76 POINTS - ChaChaDon
71 POINTS – epdon
66 POINTS – Dons50, Dazzerdon
65 POINTS – MK59DON
63 POINTS – WellDon, Third Team Lucky, APMKDon
62 POINTS – kempstondons6, Oldbloke
59 POINTS – silverous
58 POINTS - OakeeDokee
57 POINTS – Don gal, mkdonsdan4
56 POINTS – familymkdonsfan
55 POINTS – OldStratfordDon
54 POINTS - leodon
43 POINTS – D8DON, edmundpwb
38 POINTS - DonsDuck
36 POINTS - Matthew
31 POINTS – Bearhidesboy64
30 POINTS – Bex’s Dad, RussybCool
27 POINTS – Dunstable Don, Steampunk Don, Abritt6564
26 POINTS – Kowalski
25 POINTS – Concretecowbelle
24 POINTS – BuzzardDon
23 POINTS – Grundit
22 POINTS – Peterr
21 POINTS – MKAylesburyDon, Alby
16 POINTS – JackDon
15 POINTS – RedDotDon
14 POINTS – Scumarmy
13 POINTS – Locutus
10 POINTS – Croydon, donmentor
9 POINTS – yorkie, MBenn90455, Zippy
8 POINTS – Cheffy1
7 POINTS – ExtraTime, MKBuffalo
6 POINTS – Dad_of_A _Don
4 POINTS – Zameen, Ten-Don, Adebayo Akinfenwa
2 POINTS – BetterCallSaul, DippyDon, Midge

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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight

Nice summary of where we are at right now. The sooner this season is over the better.