Away Match Day Thread +++ 14/12/2019 Milton Keynes Dons v OUFC L1 +++

To whoever it was singing “glory supporters” to those leaving 5 minutes into added time, please grow up.

People like you really are full of your own self importance and no doubt you think you are a “real” supporter.

There were probably plenty of people there today who also had to be somewhere else (it is Christmas party time after all)
and could not afford to get clogged up in traffic.

But hey ho, you just ignore the fact that they made the effort to get to the game and continue to embarrass yourself and act like a tool.
I was unfortunately in close proximity to this bell end and he was pissed and full of himself all through the match. He didn't even notice that all his 'mates' were ignoring his w@nk and that one even moved to get away from him for the second half. He's never going to grow up.
 
This was my 1st visit to mk stadium, my conclusion is that it was a bit odd for several reasons. A few random thoughts:-
I thought the stadium was fine in the main, its just far too big for them. It is similar to many new or refurbed grounds like Stoke, WBA, Leicester, brum, but they get larger crowds to fill it. The concourse or hospitality level always seems to split the crowd and the upper section is isolated from the rest, like SSU at Grenoble road. On Saturday there was no one there so it was irrelevant. Maybe something to bear in mind should we ever get to design a new stadium.

I think the idea of splitting the away section is an attempt to minimise the effect that they have a small non vocal crowd and away fans will outsing/outnumber them on many occasions. Is it any different to Newcastle putting the away fans up in the gods at St James park? As Colin B referred to in his FV article their fanbase would have grown up in households with parents supporting teams from the areas they migrated from. It will take time for real attachment to their team to develop.

Whether for good or bad the location seems to be the future for new grounds, situated in a retail park surrounded by food outlets. The days of having a prematch drink in an old fashioned boozer then walking to a town centre ground are in the past, unfortunately. Still possible at fratton, lincoln etc. but becoming rarer.

I was sat at a low level- did anyone else lose sight of the football against that electric advertising board? Did not see the incident with steward {81 ?} but he wanted to have the last word as he had a verbal pop at someone near us when he was being shepherded away.

Onto the game, its was a continuation of the shrews performance ,we look jaded and mk were in our faces, we missed Henry and Cam looked like he was really struggling before he was taken off, hope he was not brought back too soon. Maybe we can freshen up in January with some new faces and players back from injury.

Onwards and upwards - good performance against City then beat Wycombe wobblers
 
This was my 1st visit to mk stadium, my conclusion is that it was a bit odd for several reasons. A few random thoughts:-
I thought the stadium was fine in the main, its just far too big for them. It is similar to many new or refurbed grounds like Stoke, WBA, Leicester, brum, but they get larger crowds to fill it. The concourse or hospitality level always seems to split the crowd and the upper section is isolated from the rest, like SSU at Grenoble road. On Saturday there was no one there so it was irrelevant. Maybe something to bear in mind should we ever get to design a new stadium.

I think the idea of splitting the away section is an attempt to minimise the effect that they have a small non vocal crowd and away fans will outsing/outnumber them on many occasions. Is it any different to Newcastle putting the away fans up in the gods at St James park? As Colin B referred to in his FV article their fanbase would have grown up in households with parents supporting teams from the areas they migrated from. It will take time for real attachment to their team to develop.

Whether for good or bad the location seems to be the future for new grounds, situated in a retail park surrounded by food outlets. The days of having a prematch drink in an old fashioned boozer then walking to a town centre ground are in the past, unfortunately. Still possible at fratton, lincoln etc. but becoming rarer.

I was sat at a low level- did anyone else lose sight of the football against that electric advertising board? Did not see the incident with steward {81 ?} but he wanted to have the last word as he had a verbal pop at someone near us when he was being shepherded away.

Onto the game, its was a continuation of the shrews performance ,we look jaded and mk were in our faces, we missed Henry and Cam looked like he was really struggling before he was taken off, hope he was not brought back too soon. Maybe we can freshen up in January with some new faces and players back from injury.

Onwards and upwards - good performance against City then beat Wycombe wobblers
With regards to the part about not having a proper boozer by the ground this is where the club could make some serious extra money with a new ground, with a decent well thought out supporters bar serving food and drinks, a lot of people would use that over restaurant type bars on any retail park, and the club could make a killing compared to what they make now, which i imagine is nothing!? Just need to look how other teams that draw a lot of fans in to supporters bars do it and borrow some ideas whilst still keeping it individual to us.
 
With regards to the part about not having a proper boozer by the ground this is where the club could make some serious extra money with a new ground, with a decent well thought out supporters bar serving food and drinks, a lot of people would use that over restaurant type bars on any retail park, and the club could make a killing compared to what they make now, which i imagine is nothing!? Just need to look how other teams that draw a lot of fans in to supporters bars do it and borrow some ideas whilst still keeping it individual to us.
We have the overpriced, cramped, limited choice n unwelcoming Quadrangle bar at the breeze block... and Js Sports bar ( upstairs at the bowlplex) neither of which is my choice of pre match hostelry

trouble is , if its limited choice on offer in a sterile environment, and a rabid anti smoking & drinking at the same time type of set up.

IF the new stadium designers factor in a proper user friendly public house I agree the club could make a decent amount pre n post match , however for me, and I dont think Im alone in this, I prefer not to have a prematch beer if I cant have a ciggy outside, while having a beer, also, limited choice of drinks on offer ( usually overpriced, chemical infused swill on tap) and a sterile establishment thats unwelcoming are big factors too , when settling on a favoured hostelry pre (& post) match..... I miss the Priory, for me,The 'bird suffices for the time we remain at the breeze block


Excellent idea @NothingCompares2You .... as long as certain criteria is applied and factored in at the planning stages
 
This was my 1st visit to mk stadium, my conclusion is that it was a bit odd for several reasons. A few random thoughts:-
I thought the stadium was fine in the main, its just far too big for them. It is similar to many new or refurbed grounds like Stoke, WBA, Leicester, brum, but they get larger crowds to fill it. The concourse or hospitality level always seems to split the crowd and the upper section is isolated from the rest, like SSU at Grenoble road. On Saturday there was no one there so it was irrelevant. Maybe something to bear in mind should we ever get to design a new stadium.

I think the idea of splitting the away section is an attempt to minimise the effect that they have a small non vocal crowd and away fans will outsing/outnumber them on many occasions. Is it any different to Newcastle putting the away fans up in the gods at St James park? As Colin B referred to in his FV article their fanbase would have grown up in households with parents supporting teams from the areas they migrated from. It will take time for real attachment to their team to develop.

Whether for good or bad the location seems to be the future for new grounds, situated in a retail park surrounded by food outlets. The days of having a prematch drink in an old fashioned boozer then walking to a town centre ground are in the past, unfortunately. Still possible at fratton, lincoln etc. but becoming rarer.

I was sat at a low level- did anyone else lose sight of the football against that electric advertising board? Did not see the incident with steward {81 ?} but he wanted to have the last word as he had a verbal pop at someone near us when he was being shepherded away.

Onto the game, its was a continuation of the shrews performance ,we look jaded and mk were in our faces, we missed Henry and Cam looked like he was really struggling before he was taken off, hope he was not brought back too soon. Maybe we can freshen up in January with some new faces and players back from injury.

Onwards and upwards - good performance against City then beat Wycombe wobblers

I like to think that I have many skills, but writing the Fans View is not one of them!

That accolade belongs to the excellent Paul Beasley.
 
We have the overpriced, cramped, limited choice n unwelcoming Quadrangle bar at the breeze block... and Js Sports bar ( upstairs at the bowlplex) neither of which is my choice of pre match hostelry

trouble is , if its limited choice on offer in a sterile environment, and a rabid anti smoking & drinking at the same time type of set up.

IF the new stadium designers factor in a proper user friendly public house I agree the club could make a decent amount pre n post match , however for me, and I dont think Im alone in this, I prefer not to have a prematch beer if I cant have a ciggy outside, while having a beer, also, limited choice of drinks on offer ( usually overpriced, chemical infused swill on tap) and a sterile establishment thats unwelcoming are big factors too , when settling on a favoured hostelry pre (& post) match..... I miss the Priory, for me,The 'bird suffices for the time we remain at the breeze block


Excellent idea @NothingCompares2You .... as long as certain criteria is applied and factored in at the planning stages
I often feel that one of the last bastions of smokers belongs to the football supporter. Thankfully, the days of smoking are coming to an end and the requirement for a smoking area will be gone. (I say this as a reformed smoker so probably the worst type! ? ) But, I do remember those days of a beer and a pint and can still remember the attraction, it's just that it won't be needed much longer.
However, a decent bar/pub drinking area is an absolute must for any new stadium and, why not a proper pub that is open normal pub hours not just on match days. Far better for the keeping and serving of beer and would afford the opportunity to serve food and provide other entertainment much as any normal community boozer would. Please, not a fizzy lager and burger outlet but a real pub with real beer.(Not another bloody Wetherspoons!) Call it The Manor, for example and kit it out with football memorabilia from OUFC. (On match days it would have to have some door control but where doesn't these days?) It may prove impractical to have an outside area but, the possibility could be investigated. Certainly, an outside area during the warmer months would prove popular and not just on match days. There are some very good architect/designers around, I feel sure that one or another would have some ideas.
 
I often feel that one of the last bastions of smokers belongs to the football supporter. Thankfully, the days of smoking are coming to an end and the requirement for a smoking area will be gone. (I say this as a reformed smoker so probably the worst type! ? ) But, I do remember those days of a beer and a pint and can still remember the attraction, it's just that it won't be needed much longer.
However, a decent bar/pub drinking area is an absolute must for any new stadium and, why not a proper pub that is open normal pub hours not just on match days. Far better for the keeping and serving of beer and would afford the opportunity to serve food and provide other entertainment much as any normal community boozer would. Please, not a fizzy lager and burger outlet but a real pub with real beer.(Not another bloody Wetherspoons!) Call it The Manor, for example and kit it out with football memorabilia from OUFC. (On match days it would have to have some door control but where doesn't these days?) It may prove impractical to have an outside area but, the possibility could be investigated. Certainly, an outside area during the warmer months would prove popular and not just on match days. There are some very good architect/designers around, I feel sure that one or another would have some ideas.
I’m not really a fan of theirs, but a Weatherspoons would be ideal at the ground - generally a big place with decent beer, cheap food, and lots of options.
 
In the first half, neither Fosu or Hall seemed to be closing down the back five. That left Taylor doing a lot of the work, and Brannagan helping him for as long as he could. Far too easy to pass around the two of them. In fact, it felt like we wanted MK to play it out from the back and get forwards, so that we could hit them on the break. MK took a lesson from Shrewsbury early doors, in slowing down every restart so that we could not counter as quickly as we would like. The problem is that none of our front three really excel at holding the ball up and bringing others into play – they would all far sooner be on the end of chances themselves. We seemed to keep this approach up through the first half, and we never could make the ball stick so we didn’t create much at all.

We shouldn’t pretend MK did a lot either. Agard and Mason put in some nice work running between CB and FB and creating space for midfield runners – particularly Boateng – but their nice passing didn’t lead to more than a couple of long range shots for Mason.

In the second half I thought we moved to match their attacking style a bit. Hall played in the middle. Taylor drifted in after a short, fruitless spell on the left, and Fosu played as CAM. Hall did a really nice job to drop deep and play passes that brought Cadden and Ruffels into dangerous attacks. In such a quiet game, that should get credit.

After they scored, I thought we were almost back to our old selves. The main difference for me was Baptiste. Sykes has had a really difficult couple of games at CM – getting brushed off in the challenge too often, but also not really getting his foot on the ball and making things tick when we have possession either. Baptiste offered more on both fronts. I would have liked to see us playing a bit smarter in this period, doing everything we could to keep the ball in play and maximising the time we had to create that chance - the optimist says we were just tired, but we gave away silly fouls and let the ball drift out too often.

The lessons I would take are:

Fosu, Hall and Taylor isn’t really working as a front three, particularly when they play on the counter. They might all swap positions in the course of the game, but I’ve not seen very much combination play between the three over the past 180 minutes. If we have to start all three, then I would have them all pressing harder to try and win the ball near to goal, limiting the need for any build-up.

My preferred option would be to have two of them playing with another player that could be a ‘creator’ for them to add balance. I like Sykes in this role – even if he was not an option in this game due to the CM injuries. The other possibility is Cadden, with Long behind him. Henry (or Forde) also, which should go without saying. Basically any player who will drive in low crosses for Taylor.

I didn’t really see Fosu doing anything defensively that Hall didn’t. I am not as down on Hall as some. I think he’s the natural back-up to Fosu, as a winger that likes to cut in and shoot from wherever he happens to get the ball, and decent back-up for this level at that.

If we find ourselves bringing on a second striker to chase a goal, I’d like to see Agyei get a chance.
 
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