Match Thread: Lincoln City v Milton Keynes Dons | Page 14 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Milton Keynes Dons

Dreadful 2nd half and MK finished looking the more likely winners. But another point and safety looking more certain with good results elsewhere.

Some nice touches but nothing really came together and poor finishing when needed a cool head.

Agree with most of the plusses and minuses above - Bridcutt assured once got going, capped with a good goal; Edun is a player, looked good in CM v Blackpool when got going, and apart from occasional positional deficiencies looked ok at LB tonight; Scully looked lively when he came on, lets hope for a start on Saturday.

Big minus, as others have said, is Hopper - offered very little, that long contract is a worry.
 
Can't pass and can't tackle other than that promising. Lowest home fans in attendance for over two years. Someone will know when we had lower home fans than 7559. Serious recruitment required in the summer and loanees are not necessarily the answer! Time for Freck or Pett to replace Morrell who is now suspended? no it will be a loanee!
 
John Jules was good other than his missed chance. Pressured them into most of their mistakes.

Grant should be a CM I think? I really don’t know where he should play. Don’t think he’s a winger.

Is Edun right footed? Thought he played well but maybe better at RB?

Ref didn’t help the match. But neither did either team.

442 DOES NOT WORK!! You lose all links between midfield and striker. Hesketh is ok, prefer Payne - but definitely need 1 on the pitch. If we had cb’s, we should be trying 3-5-2. Think it would suit the system it appears Appleton is trying to play.

Thought he made some poor decisions today. Scully looks a bright player though.
 
I wonder if the money received from the recent transfers and wages saved will be available to spend in the summer or was it needed to plug the hole in the losses ? I hope not the latter !
 
Skip155 said:
Yeh employ a manager after the transfer window closes and give him a 3 season target and then think you’re witnessing the finished article after a 31 day transfer window and no pre-season. Sounds right.
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The club clearly slashed the playing budget in January, leaving more money for the summer (or bills). We just need to limp over the line this season.
 
domski2017 said:
Can't pass and can't tackle other than that promising. Lowest home fans in attendance for over two years. Someone will know when we had lower home fans than 7559. Serious recruitment required in the summer and loanees are not necessarily the answer! Time for Freck or Pett to replace Morrell who is now suspended? no it will be a loanee!
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The loanee is more likely to be in our starting 11 next season!
 
Not read any other comments but I thought tonight was dreadful. The insistence of playing from the back is becoming a joke now. By not pushing up and playing a high line we are just inviting immediate pressure on ourselves. MK were carving us open time and time again. It’s so frustrating to watch. When we did get forward we really created very little and the two clear chances we had from Hesketh and John-Jules, well the less said the bette. Feel sorry for John-Jules though as he is so isolated and ends up chasing the game. Positive side was a great finish from Bridcut. Got us a point we hardly deserved but it’s a point and stops the run of defeats. On to Accy UTI
 
All I would say is be patient. We decided to remove all the big earners from the squad in January, and plugged the team with loan players to see us through to the end of the season.

Anyone really think Clive and the board have brought MAPP in to hang him out to dry? He will be backed in the summer, and it will be a complete rebuild. We just need to limp over the line.
 
I'll end up repeating this a few more times before the season is out, but a little perspective.

The scenario is that we've taken a calculated gamble and raised funds by selling off, certainly three, important players in Toffolo, Andrade and O'Connor, which weakens us straight away. We also lost Walker, our top scorer. We brought 10(?) players in, in January. That doesn't all come together straight away and, realistically, probably won't this season. They'll be a *huge* turnover of players in the summer.

Tonnes of bumps between now and the end of the season, and I'm not talking about the pitch (hopefully that's another issue that will be sorted for next season).

Ideally we'd not want to be like this heading in ST sale windows but the chances of keeping up 6.5k ST holders were always going to be slim because we will/have plateaued, although our home attendance actually held up quite well tonight in comparison to our last midweek game (Portsmouth - only 200 or so more home fans that night). The area that was down was the family area, which is normally the case on midweeks anyway.

This is an absolutely MASSIVE transition phase for the Club, and I really can't emphasise that enough. This isn't just a new manager type transition phase. It's a new manager, who's only had a notoriously difficult transfer window to try and change things around. It's a new league, one we haven't been in for 21 years. It's the end of a squad cycle, some have been here for 2.5+ years. It's the phasing out of the 'ready to go' players that were signed to get us promoted and are the wrong side of their peak. It's a new way of playing, with a squad built to play a different way.

It's also worth pointing out that for two thirds of the season, we've been the best performing newly promoted side.
 
Absolutely dreadful second half. Yes we may limp over the line but until we are mathematically certain I’ll reserve judgment on that. The question is if we manage that what comes next. I can only see another relegation fight. Much is made that we have a plan under Appleton but plans don’t always work out. I happen to think Appleton is a good manager but our club and football in general tends to show that a manager who follows a successful incumbent rarely succeeds. Sorry I know I’m a plastic for saying this.
 
Warrington Imp said:
Second half was dreadful and MK Dons definitely finished the stronger donot understand why we play out from the back as Vickers, Shackell and in particular Bolger’s distribution is dreadful.

When you compare us to the Xmas games against Posh and Ipswich we have really gone backwards,.

Still trying to work out what Hopper is here for gives nothing as far as I can see.

Playing like that we will get beat at Accy on Saturday and we are basically hoping that Tranmere’s bad run continues.

Becoming very unsure about MA hope I am proved wrong.
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And add to your list why Jack Payne cannot get onto the pitch. Just asking not being been critical
 
Luke Imp said:
I'll end up repeating this a few more times before the season is out, but a little perspective.

The scenario is that we've taken a calculated gamble and raised funds by selling off, certainly three, important players in Toffolo, Andrade and O'Connor, which weakens us straight away. We also lost Walker, our top scorer. We brought 10(?) players in, in January. That doesn't all come together straight away and, realistically, probably won't this season. They'll be a *huge* turnover of players in the summer.

Tonnes of bumps between now and the end of the season, and I'm not talking about the pitch (hopefully that's another issue that will be sorted for next season).

Ideally we'd not want to be like this heading in ST sale windows but the chances of keeping up 6.5k ST holders were always going to be slim because we will/have plateaued, although our home attendance actually held up quite well tonight in comparison to our last midweek game (Portsmouth - only 200 or so more home fans that night). The area that was down was the family area, which is normally the case on midweeks anyway.

This is an absolutely MASSIVE transition phase for the Club, and I really can't emphasise that enough. This isn't just a new manager type transition phase. It's a new manager, who's only had a notoriously difficult transfer window to try and change things around. It's a new league, one we haven't been in for 21 years. It's the end of a squad cycle, some have been here for 2.5+ years. It's the phasing out of the 'ready to go' players that were signed to get us promoted and are the wrong side of their peak. It's a new way of playing, with a squad built to play a different way.

It's also worth pointing out that for two thirds of the season, we've been the best performing newly promoted side.
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Think this should be a pinned post for this message board for the rest of the season.
 
Frustrating listening to Appleton talk about a tense atmosphere in the stadium and how it affected the players. My tips:

1) Stop asking players who are incapable of playing out from the back to play out from the back. It either results in us giving the opposition the ball or us coming under pressure and then whacking it long anyway. Fans are going to be frustrated watching the same failed process again and again.
2) Build a relationship with the fans. Yes, the majority of the fans are there because of the success we had, but they also came because the Cowleys put a hell of a lot of work into getting involved in the community. You can't just expect unconditional support if you don't give anything back.
3) Don't expect fans to completely have faith in the system when all our games seem to end up with three forwards playing in random positions at the end of a game.
4) Don't bring in players for £150k (and presumably on high wages) when they offer as little as Tom Hopper.
 
interesting that as a team in transition a good few of the squad and 7 of today's starting 11 have been with appleton for 22 games now - about 4 months? i must admit i was also expecting more basic passing and technical quality from a few of the premiership loanees that have been brought in.

yet it has taken bridcutt 2 games to implement it.
 
Perhaps playing out from the back looks good in training on those nice training pitches up @Scampton. However, Sincil Bank is a very different pitch, increasingly the players don’t appear to be comfortable with playing that system, whether that be nerves, pressure or confidence not sure. One thing is for sure, that it’s head in your hands time every time we do it.
 
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