A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Bruce Rioja » Sat Feb 22, 2020 5:49 pm

On the way home earlier and flicked on Bolton FM. Now, by the sounds of it I'm guessing that their commentator isn't generally the cheeriest of types anyway. However, to listen to him trying his best to describe a game which was clearly as dull as ditch water was little short of excruciating, and off it went.
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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Bertie Wooster » Sat Feb 22, 2020 7:18 pm

Get him out now, Hill - by far the worst manager in BWFC history by some distance, he makes Megson look like Klopp.

We get worse every week, start slowly and don't get any better - no fight, no spirit, no organisation, no skill, no creativity, absolutely no idea, players cant be arsed, manager can't do any better.

Turn the lights out now, season over & if Hill's here next season, we will be fighting relegation in League 2 as this mon (Hill) is an absolute appalling. inept manager - he'd struggle to manage a corner shop.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Harry Genshaw » Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:18 pm

Any report from those who were there? As poor as it sounded?
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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:24 pm

MK Dons were surprisingly terrible, we were unsurprisingly so. Crawford half-fit and sharp as a spoon. Politic utterly woeful all afternoon - as if he was playing in flippers - bar one shot late on. Lowe wasted at RB but we have no option given Emmanuel’s form.

Fans tried to rouse team but after the goal it all went quiet. No booing, no arguing, no fighting - a very very mild boo at the whistle, but then everyone just filed out. No sticking around to honour or harangue the players. Feels like this season can’t end quickly enough, and that is a poor state of affairs.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by TonyDomingos » Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:57 pm

Does this latest defeat increase my chance of getting a ticket for Wimbledon? 766 at MKD today v 774 tickets for AFCW. Every cloud ...
Às armas, às armas!
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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by DJBlu » Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:08 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:24 pm
MK Dons were surprisingly terrible, we were unsurprisingly so. Crawford half-fit and sharp as a spoon. Politic utterly woeful all afternoon - as if he was playing in flippers - bar one shot late on. Lowe wasted at RB but we have no option given Emmanuel’s form.

Fans tried to rouse team but after the goal it all went quiet. No booing, no arguing, no fighting - a very very mild boo at the whistle, but then everyone just filed out. No sticking around to honour or harangue the players. Feels like this season can’t end quickly enough, and that is a poor state of affairs.
The major issues with both Hill and Flitcroft today. Not identifying the poor performance. Mellis went off, might have been tiring but he was effective all game on the right. Politic was poor from the first kick, had he been replaced around 60 mins we might have seen the game out. Teams are doubling up on him as they know he'll lose possession eventually after his standard cut in run to the box and shoot. He lost the ball in such a dangerous position with at least 5 Bolton players up in support.

It's all irrelevant what we think as FV have got him in for the long hall. Unfortunately.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Feb 22, 2020 10:36 pm

I love Dennis and wish him the best but he was literally laughably awful today; I wasn’t the only one chuckling at the majestic awfulness of it. He dribbled off the field twice, sliced a shot wide, neglected to shoot from a far easier position... kept getting the ball trapped under his penguin feet... and he was still one of our Men Most Likely. As you say DJ, he should have come off after an hour but stayed on because we have no direct replacement. We had like five central midfielders today and then Sonny Graham comes on and gets stuck on the wing, then as a No10, neither of which suits him. I’m glad to see the kids - or anyone who might be here next season - get minutes but let’s play them in the right place. But I still don’t feel we are seeing evidence of a clear style of play, which is worrying.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sun Feb 23, 2020 8:30 am

Oh and we did indeed go to the McD’s at MKDs, where The Legendary But Frankly Weary Flanners and I had our usual “discussion” about whether two double burgers is two or four....

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Bertie Wooster » Sun Feb 23, 2020 8:33 am

According to Keith we 'controlled the opposition without having possession'.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:45 am

Interesting tone to Ilesy's report:

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/1 ... h-verdict/

I agree with a lot of it (although lauding Toto is a bit tallest-dwarf). Also, the home side's supposedly superior passing was largely limited to popping it around at the back while our players watched from a distance - lethargic rather than lethal, precisely the sort of pointless football that made Guardiola spit the phrase "tiki-taka" as an insult.

However, he's right about the shoulder-shrugging, on pitch and in stands. It's not a particularly angry relegation, as under Lennon/Jiminho. It's not even a spectacularly awful one, as under Parkinson. It's just a gentle, soporific, lose every game by one or two, Dignitas relegation. And as Marc says, that's a very worrying thing for next season.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Athertonian » Sun Feb 23, 2020 11:27 am

I watched it via I Follow and can vouch it was terrible.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by TonyDomingos » Sun Feb 23, 2020 11:27 am

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:45 am
Interesting tone to Ilesy's report:

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/1 ... h-verdict/

I agree with a lot of it (although lauding Toto is a bit tallest-dwarf). Also, the home side's supposedly superior passing was largely limited to popping it around at the back while our players watched from a distance - lethargic rather than lethal, precisely the sort of pointless football that made Guardiola spit the phrase "tiki-taka" as an insult.

However, he's right about the shoulder-shrugging, on pitch and in stands. It's not a particularly angry relegation, as under Lennon/Jiminho. It's not even a spectacularly awful one, as under Parkinson. It's just a gentle, soporific, lose every game by one or two, Dignitas relegation. And as Marc says, that's a very worrying thing for next season.

Yes, I thought it a good point. I suspect it might do for Hillcroft rather than the results in themselves.
Às armas, às armas!
Sobre a terra, sobre o mar,
Às armas, às armas!
Pela Pátria lutar!
Contra os canhões marchar, marchar!

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sun Feb 23, 2020 12:33 pm

Athertonian wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 11:27 am
I watched it via I Follow and can vouch it was terrible.
I feel for you - I'm glad I paid £22 to go rather than £10 to watch on a laptop. There was - at least near me - a gallows humour among the fans; not invective, just some older heads going "Ah, I see we're back here again." Comparing Hobbs to Beckenbauer, chuckling at the ineptitude, that sort of thing.
TonyDomingos wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 11:27 am
Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:45 am
However, he's right about the shoulder-shrugging, on pitch and in stands. It's not a particularly angry relegation, as under Lennon/Jiminho. It's not even a spectacularly awful one, as under Parkinson. It's just a gentle, soporific, lose every game by one or two, Dignitas relegation. And as Marc says, that's a very worrying thing for next season.
Yes, I thought it a good point. I suspect it might do for Hillcroft rather than the results in themselves.
If results were the measure, then surely now only "circumstance" is mitigating on their behalf. Since we (slightly luckily, but welcomely) beat MK at ours, we've played 17, won 2, drawn 4, lost 11, scored 16, conceded 35. Again, I'm not a knee-jerker or a fantasist, but that is a bad run in anybody's book - extrapolated over a 46-game season, a 27pts-bad campaign.

Overcoming that would take some Very Promising Signs or, and here's the worry, people being asleep at the wheel - perhaps having the same blithe overconfidence displayed by Stan Coyle and Ollie Gartside when we left the Premier. I would hope that there are some very serious conversations going on, both with and without Hillcroft.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by LeverEnd » Sun Feb 23, 2020 2:25 pm

I can't imagine that those conversations aren't happening, given they're consulting Kenyon and have appointed Phoenix.
They've been very quiet, let's hope that's because they're busy sorting shit out. I really think he'll be sacked before the season ends, possibly within a month.
...

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Branagan » Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:34 am

Stadium MK feels like sitting in a car showroom somehow. Sounds like one too.

We're playing like we did in the last days of the old regime. No speed, no press, poor passing, an isolated front man.

It's really disappointing because Hill had gotten us playing exciting football earlier this season. That's completely disappeared now. At first I could only put it down to a revolving door of players and big losses in key creators Verlinden, Crawford and Bridcutt. But now I'm thinking it's more a case of motivation. Talk all you like about how players used to do it for the badge but what kind of player is going to find motivation when they know our season is already over and they most likely won't be here next season?

Not saying that mentality is right, just that it's here and it's going to take a toll.

Can't think of a manager in the world that would be able to spark a fire in that dressing room.

It's that and the football I saw a few months ago that makes me keep my pledge to not judge Hill until half way through next season. But I am finding it difficult.

Oh and Stadium MK feels like a car showroom somehow. Sounds like one too.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:40 am

Branagan wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:34 am
Stadium MK feels like sitting in a car showroom somehow. Sounds like one too.

We're playing like we did in the last days of the old regime. No speed, no press, poor passing, an isolated front man.

It's really disappointing because Hill had gotten us playing exciting football earlier this season. That's completely disappeared now. At first I could only put it down to a revolving door of players and big losses in key creators Verlinden, Crawford and Bridcutt. But now I'm thinking it's more a case of motivation. Talk all you like about how players used to do it for the badge but what kind of player is going to find motivation when they know our season is already over and they most likely won't be here next season?

Not saying that mentality is right, just that it's here and it's going to take a toll.

Can't think of a manager in the world that would be able to spark a fire in that dressing room.

It's that and the football I saw a few months ago that makes me keep my pledge to not judge Hill until half way through next season. But I am finding it difficult.

Oh and Stadium MK feels like a car showroom somehow. Sounds like one too.
Agree that the situation is very difficult. But its partly of Hill's own making. Not sure he handled December or January at all well - we still had a tiny chance yet he released players who were doing a job and possibly sent out the signal that we were giving up and also that everything was short term focussed. He didn't build around what we had - whilst embargo and restrictions and all that - we released Chicksen, Early and Wright and for me haven't improved in any of those areas. Players we (so I'm told) could have kept - but Hill didn't want after the Burton game. So - in essence instead of replacing Bridcutt and Verlinden - two we were unlikely to keep we had a huge job on our hands and January fell away as did any tiny lingering hope.

My concern with Hill is judgement and behaviour - he was determined to bring Hamilton in, who he'd worked with before and whilst he's added energy - you can hardly say he was an upgrade over the ones we had before him either. Fleming is bobbins. Truly bobbins - good on the ball but I can defend better.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by TonyDomingos » Mon Feb 24, 2020 11:23 am

TonyDomingos wrote:
Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:57 pm
Does this latest defeat increase my chance of getting a ticket for Wimbledon? 766 at MKD today v 774 tickets for AFCW. Every cloud ...

Got my ticket to watch us v the real Dons. A purchase I'll come to regret, no doubt.
Às armas, às armas!
Sobre a terra, sobre o mar,
Às armas, às armas!
Pela Pátria lutar!
Contra os canhões marchar, marchar!

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Mon Feb 24, 2020 11:53 am

Branagan wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:34 am
We're playing like we did in the last days of the old regime. No speed, no press, poor passing, an isolated front man.

It's really disappointing because Hill had gotten us playing exciting football earlier this season. That's completely disappeared now.
From what I can gather by picking through Hill's waffle, it seems the plan on Saturday was to sit deep and then counter, which I suppose might have made us seem more inert than usual. Oh and of course it didn't work, partly because nothing does but specifically because they simply waited until we eventually pushed men forward then sliced through the huge gap in midfield where Jason Lowe would have been had he not been playing right-back.
.
Branagan wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:34 am
It's really disappointing because Hill had gotten us playing exciting football earlier this season. That's completely disappeared now. At first I could only put it down to a revolving door of players and big losses in key creators Verlinden, Crawford and Bridcutt. But now I'm thinking it's more a case of motivation. Talk all you like about how players used to do it for the badge but what kind of player is going to find motivation when they know our season is already over and they most likely won't be here next season?
Sounds right to me. I was buoyed by our early displays under Hill, but now that's gone. I don't know whether it's different personnel, a different mood, poor coaching or what. Maybe all of them.

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by Branagan » Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:05 pm

BWFC_Insane wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:40 am
Not sure he handled December or January at all well - we still had a tiny chance yet he released players who were doing a job and possibly sent out the signal that we were giving up and also that everything was short term focussed. He didn't build around what we had - whilst embargo and restrictions and all that - we released Chicksen, Early and Wright and for me haven't improved in any of those areas. Players we (so I'm told) could have kept - but Hill didn't want after the Burton game. So - in essence instead of replacing Bridcutt and Verlinden - two we were unlikely to keep we had a huge job on our hands and January fell away as did any tiny lingering hope.
True. Early evidence was that he pulled off an incredible deadline day masterstroke in that first window, but the rest of the ins/outs have been frustrating at best. If he could have kept that initial squad, even as things turned, they would have been easier to motivate because they were the original great escape squad - may as well fight to the end. Now we're just back to getting bodies in to make up a team.

And yep I don't understand the latest transfer activity. They're not good enough to keep us up (who would be, to be fair?) but they're not going to be with us in League 2. So why are they here?

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Re: A trip to Micky D's: MK Dons (A), Sat 22 Feb 2020, 3pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:16 pm

Branagan wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:05 pm
BWFC_Insane wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:40 am
Not sure he handled December or January at all well - we still had a tiny chance yet he released players who were doing a job and possibly sent out the signal that we were giving up and also that everything was short term focussed. He didn't build around what we had - whilst embargo and restrictions and all that - we released Chicksen, Early and Wright and for me haven't improved in any of those areas. Players we (so I'm told) could have kept - but Hill didn't want after the Burton game. So - in essence instead of replacing Bridcutt and Verlinden - two we were unlikely to keep we had a huge job on our hands and January fell away as did any tiny lingering hope.
True. Early evidence was that he pulled off an incredible deadline day masterstroke in that first window, but the rest of the ins/outs have been frustrating at best. If he could have kept that initial squad, even as things turned, they would have been easier to motivate because they were the original great escape squad - may as well fight to the end. Now we're just back to getting bodies in to make up a team.

And yep I don't understand the latest transfer activity. They're not good enough to keep us up (who would be, to be fair?) but they're not going to be with us in League 2. So why are they here?
I think he thought he'd keep us up. And as you say he had a decent side initially. But I think what he didn't reckon with was the thumping at Accrington and the Burton game - he then over-reacted and thought we just needed a lot of new faces. I think one thing he sort of misses is that had he kept a consistent team even if results were inconsistent we might have more togetherness and more chance of keeping the bulk of it together for next season with the fans onside.

Instead he's just brought in new players, not yet fit, taking time to adjust and lost if we're honest the bulk of goodwill and support he had in abundance at the start. It shows an alarming lack of judgement. Added to that is the fact that he seemingly wants to revert to "players he knows" which suggests he might struggle to work with different characters. The signs are all there, odd interviews, inviting pressure, seemingly wanting to argue with everyone including the club minimum wage video guy. It screams a man under huge pressure and out of his depth.

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