Will Walsall big litmus test work for MKFC this season?

Now 3-1 favourites to go up this season, today MKFC face their first big test to confirm that the bookies are right. Ok they have had a 5-0 win at home against Cheltenham but Cheltenham are bottom of the league and the result does not necessarily confirm MK are going to achieve big things this season There is talk amongst supporters at the club that with the change of ownership at the club, the new Arab owners will dip into their pockets more then previously was the case with Mr Peter Winkleman. However the proof is still in the pudding, there is no evidence of any radical purchases at the club to date. Yes, new players have been purchased but they are all league two, semi professional and some non league players, very similar to the purchasing pattern of the previous owner. In the directors restaurant today, a supporter asked a GMK News reporter if the carrot and Mirander soup was good? Yes, someone interrupted, better than the football we are presently watching at MkFC, someone replied. With history showing Deli Ali being sold for an undisclosed multi million pound figure and the profits from that sale not being used to increase the entertainment value at MK Stadium. Supporters and observers alike are beginning to wonder if we are going to get more of the same? Today’s Walsall match looked to be a litmus test to confirm whether such negative thinking was true or not.

Packed away end full of Walsall supporters

In the first five mins , Walsall opened the match fighting by pushing the play into the MK half for most of the time.

Drummer and vocal MK fans ever present to match them

Walsall push most of the play into Mk end for the first 10 mins.

In the 8th min, a Walsall defender made a poor clumsy contact kick with the ball allowing a Mk striker to get past and steal the ball. However, MK failed to take advantage of the gift opportunity. By the close of the first quarter, Walsall had had more of the play but neither side had yet created a threatening opportunity at their respective opposite end. In the 17th minute, MK were awarded a free quick just outside the right hand corner of the penalty box but again when taken MK failed to make anything of it. A few mins later, Walsall were awarded to right hand side corner kicks. In the second one Walsall this time made contact with the ball which went just under a metre over the MK goal bar and was the best attempt at goal to date. With the play hotting up, some aggressive tackling came in and MK was awarded a free kick, taken by Liam Kelly but nothing created. Another subsequent MK cross went close to the right hand post but was easily taken into the hands of the Walsall goal keeper. In the 25th min, the ball started getting more into the Walsall half, another foul followed by a short player water break as the Walsall fouled player was given medical attention. The injury sustained must have been bad as the injured player was immediately substituted. By the end of the second quarter the score line was still 0-0 with either side having nothing much to write home about. The MK home end was starting to fall silent, as spectators started to wonder when the promised more entertaining g football following inter season new signings was going to start. In the 32nd min, Callum Peterson got a short dribble in the near Walsall penalty box but nothing came of the final weak shot which went considerably wide of the left hand side post. In the 35th min , new signing Nathaniel Hepburn Murphy got a faster dribble of his own with a shot this time on goal which was easily punched away by the keeper. In the final 5 mins of the first half MK were holding onto possession passing from player to player to allow time to pass and keep a clean sheet. A tactic not really reflective of an potentially attacking aggressive team very likely to get promotion. Walsall took advantage of the stalling tactic by pushing the play back into the MK half. Mendez was finally looking alive and got another run down the left hand side which resulted in a corner being awarded which again failed to create a threatening shot at goal. When the final half time whistle went, all the spectators could hope for was that the second half would bring something much better than what they had just witnessed during the first half.

There was a lot of shirt pulling in the closing stages of the first half and it continued into the open of the second half. Frustration with the playing and the score line bubbled over with more fouling in which within the first 3 mins resulted in a yellow being awarded against. Walsall. The follow on play from the free kick which followed resulted in Mk getting their best

52nd min Walsall go 1-0 up.

chance of the match so far. An open goal should have resulted with Mk going 1-0 up but they didn’t. What actually happened was almost immediately later with Walsall getting a retaliatory run and strike at goal at the opposite end putting Walsall not Mk one nil up. The shock awakening in ne hoped with give Mk the kick up the rear they so desperately needed. Hopefully the dropping of a goal would spark off the better and more entertaining play, the home crowd had been promised. In tge 56th min the home end became more alive but would the same happen on the pitch? A corner kick to Mk was awarded which resulted in ping pong headers from Mk striker to striker but no theeatening equalising shot on goal the home crowd was wanting and now beginning to demand. Another Walsall foul came in the 58th but no second yellow causing a huge boo directed at the referee from the home supporters. In the 61st minute, MK substituted hoping this might help counter their woes. Rushian Murphy started to come a bit more alive with a threatening strike down the right hand side spurring on Mendez Lang to do the same on the right. Here one could now see some kind of logical strategical play from MK and it was begging to work with MK pushing more play and pressure into the Walsall penalty box. In the 66th minute Murphy went down causing a short delay in play. However instead of more urgently required runs down the right hand side he started to drift in towards play in the centre of the pitch. If MK were going to get the equaliser, the wingers needed to excercise more dicipline as to where they played. Murphy was rightly punished by being substituted in the 70th minute or was he simply being taken off due to injury? A close MK shot on goal nearly went in, in the 71st min. Following the substitutions it now looked like Mendez was now playing the right wing instead of the left creating a void/ impasse/ vacuum as to who was now running the left wubg. Substitute Aaron Nemane was defending on the left and connecting up with Jon Mellish who in the 76th finally managed to get a close shot at goal, showing that the change it tactics might be working, as Mendez got another run in at goal on the right side which also nearly went in. By the final quarter, MK were having all of the match and seriously looked like equalising. In the 80th minute, a foul following a centre attack, resulted in a free kick a few mins from the centre of D area/ arc. However the kick hit the defence wall and MK were left frustratingly wanting again. All Walsall had to do was hold on and hope that the substitutions and change in winger tactics would not produce anything. In the 82nd, Walsall got a corner kick to help their cause along but failed to get a goal from it which would have killed the match off for them. In the 83rd, MK brought on Leko hoping this would bring the Calvary to the rescue but it didn’t. In the 87th min, Leko helped with more runs in from the left side with a shot which also nearly went leading to a following on goal mouth scramble as Mk tried to get a last min equaliser. With 5 mins of extra time awarded it was beginning to look like that the cavalry was not going to come. Although Leko’s influential contribution on the left hand front side attacking position showed he should have been brought on sooner rather than later. Mendez got the Mk player of the match award but nobody was really sure why as he only created two or three penetrating and threatening wing attacks throughout the match. When tge whistle finally went, nothing but disappointment could be felt by the home crowd. Mk had not come up trumps on their first litmus test of the season. All one could hope for that it would be a different result against Man Utd killers, Grimsby, next week.

7261 Attendance