By Luke Payne, Feature Writer
Football’s back! It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for The Dons with the takeover announcement as well as a transfer exchange. This gave the season opener a bit of a strange feel and it’s safe to say it started horrendously as Dons went two goals behind in the early stages. Mike Williamson’s men were able to pull one back but it wasn’t enough. Here’s how I rated the players after the 1-2 defeat to Bradford at Stadium MK:
Formation: 5-4-1/5-2-2-1 (Two holding midfielders and two attacking midfielders)
GK – Tom McGill – 7: There was nothing McGill could’ve done about the goals with one being a fearsome strike from the edge of the box and the other being a nasty deflection. The keeper made a couple of big saves to keep Dons in the game including an impressive one-on-one against Andy Cook. McGill played the ball about nicely and showed great accuracy distributing the ball all over the pitch. Notably he always weighted his passes nicely, keeping the tempo up as much as he could.
RWB – Aaron Nemane – 7: Nemane was one of the brighter sparks in the first half, causing all sorts of problems for Bradford’s defence. He took a bit of time to get going with his crossing accuracy but he showed a willingness to take on his man that enabled Dons to advance deep into the final third. Defensively Nemane looked a little vulnerable, rarely sticking a foot in or stopping crosses. He’s partially at fault for the first goal as he left his marker advance towards the box unchallenged. Nemane wasn’t quite as influential in the second half and seemed to run out of steam resulting in him coming off for Callum Tripp after 80 minutes.
RCB – Sam Sherring – 4.5: Inconsistent is probably the kindest way to describe Sherring’s performance. He had a nightmare start when he totally mishit a clearance, managing to kick the ball backwards into his own net, making it 0-2 after 5 minutes. The frustrating thing is that he didn’t even necessarily need to make the clearance as the cross was inaccurate and unlikely to find a Bradford player. Sherring had a few other poor moments that could’ve easily cost the team. Weirdly he seemed to have a minute of madness every now and then before returning to being a solid player. He did play one fantastic ball through for Callum Hendry resulting in one of Dons’ best chances of the first half. Hopefully this poor start won’t get in Sherring’s head as you have to play with a certain confidence to operate as a centre-back in this system.
CB – Jack Tucker – 6.5: Tucker had a solid yet unspectacular game. He had the tricky job of dealing with Andy Cook but for the most part he did a good job, restricting the target man to very little. Tucker won a lot of his aerial battles and often needed to be held off by a second Bradford player to prevent the centre-back winning the header. He did make a couple of minor errors in possession and did sometimes commit to a challenge too early but he also put in one or two vital blocks when Bradford looked to break forward. Tucker deserves credit for this performance and hopefully the fans don’t look at the result and assume it was due to Tucker starting as this simply wasn’t the case.
LCB – Nico Lawrence – 7.5 (TOP DON): My biggest concern when looking at the line-up was the unexpected absence of Laurence Maguire. Lawrence hasn’t spent long with the team and centre-back is a demanding role in this system. However, he did a fantastic job to the point that he stood out as Top Don. He was tough with his tackling and hard to dispossess. Lawrence passed the ball about nicely albeit making one or two small errors along the way. His defensive work made sure that Bradford had virtually no success down the left. If he plays like that every game then Maguire may struggle to get back into the team on his return.
LWB – Joe Tomlinson – 6.5: Involved in the build-up to the goal and did supply another decent cross in the second half but aside from this Tomlinson was quite disappointing going forward. He seemed to show Brad Halliday far too much respect and didn’t want to take on the Bradford man one-on-one. With this being said, he defended well and won a lot of his aerial battles despite the constant shoving from Halliday. It would be nice to see Tomlinson play with a little more freedom as he’s at his best when he bursts forward in the final third.
CM – Luke Offord – 5: Offord’s performance was surprisingly poor. He picked up an early booking and easily could’ve had another with some of the challenges he was putting in. Offord was okay in possession but his error rate seemed to be higher than those around him which did sometimes upset the rhythm that Dons were trying to play with. In possession he seemed to tuck in just in front of the defence to allow Kelly to operate in more creative positions. This was a system that worked quite well even with Offord not playing to his usual standard. With Dons chasing an equaliser Offord came off after 80 minutes for Tom Carroll.
CM – Liam Kelly – 7: Kelly’s capable of more than he showed in this game but he was still the main playmaker in the side. He was regularly able to slide teammates into advanced positions with clever passes around the corner, often in the final third. Kelly set up Stephen Wearne on a couple of occasions with one touch passes to send his teammate through. He did make one or two poor decisions in the final third as well, sometimes opting to cross towards the back post when he was in a good shooting position on the edge of the box. Aside from this Kelly put in a decent performance.
RAM – Stephen Wearne – 5: Wearne was incredibly frustrating to watch. He was largely at fault for Bradford’s opening goal, stepping too far away from Alex Pattison and giving the Bradford man a free shot on goal from the edge of the box. Pattison rifled it into the back of the net, making it 0-1 after 3 minutes. Wearne was heavily involved in a lot of The Dons’ build-up play and was the catalyst in plenty of attacks. The only problem was his end product. Despite getting into fantastic positions, Wearne simply couldn’t hit the target, even managing to hit one over the bar in a one-on-one scenario after being set up by Kelly. He also had another huge chance from close range following a low cross from Tomlinson. Wearne failed to connect with the ball properly, allowing Bradford to clear their lines. He did set Hendry up for a similar chance earlier in the game but there really was no excuse for Wearne to not come away with a goal in this game. It’s promising that he was creating so many chances, just concerning that he wasn’t finishing them! He came off after 70 minutes for Tommy Leigh.
LAM – Alex Gilbey – 6.5: Gilbey got Dons back into the game with his goal. He ran onto Callum Hendry’s flick-on and managed to outrun Brad Halliday, driving into the box before poking the ball past the keeper. This made it 1-2 after 20 minutes. Aside from this Gilbey actually had a quiet first half. He came into the game a bit more in the second half, trying a shot from the edge of the box that forced a corner. When Matt Dennis came on, Gilbey seemed to find more success going forwards for a while though sadly this didn’t last.
There were also a couple of occasions where Gilbey made really poor decisions in the final third. In the first half he went for goal following a save from Hendry’s shot. He was evidently attempting to catch the keeper off guard but he would’ve been better off passing to Tomlinson who was in a much better position. Then in the second half Gilbey set up Dennis on the counter-attack. Dennis decided to go around the outside of his man and went for goal from the left side of the box. The ball rebounded towards the penalty spot which is where Gilbey should’ve been… but he was too busy watching Dennis and had stopped running when he reached the edge of the box.
ST – Callum Hendry – 7: Hendry played an important part in The Dons’ goal, flicking a beautiful ball through for Gilbey, splitting the Bradford defence instantaneously. This was a regular part of Hendry’s game and it proved to be effective in getting Dons further up the pitch. He also worked hard out of possession, forcing rushed clearances out of the Bradford defence on numerous occasions. Hendry did have a couple of chances. The first was a strike from the edge of the box following a ball forward from Sherring. Hendry forced a save out of the keeper but the rebound came to nothing in the end. His second chance came when Wearne played a low ball across the box for Hendry to tap in. Unfortunately the striker showed too much of the ball to Brad Halliday who managed to slide in just before Hendry could make contact, allowing the Bradford keeper to collect it before Hendry could recover. He came off after 66 minutes for Matt Dennis.
SUB (ST) – Matt Dennis – 7: Came on and immediately increased the tempo of the game, driving at Bradford time and time again. He went for goal a number of times and did force a couple of saves out of the Bradford keeper though he was too selfish at times, sometimes shooting when there were obvious passing options available instead. Dennis pressed surprisingly well and put in a decent amount of work off the ball. As the game went on the opportunities dried up for Dennis, with the midfield struggling to pick him out in the sea of Bradford players.
SUB (RAM) – Tommy Leigh – 4.5: Leigh looked a bit lost coming on from the bench. He seemed to play mostly with his back to Bradford’s goal which is a bit concerning for an attacking player. Leigh was largely ineffective and flat-footed, though he did play a few alright passes. He had the final chance of the game but his effort rocketed over the bar following a cutback from Callum Tripp.
SUB (CM) – Tom Carroll – 6.5: Carroll was brought on to give Dons a little more creativity in midfield. He played the ball about well enough and managed to get the ball out to the wings frequently. However, when he was in more advanced positions through the middle he did sometimes play too safe instead of trying to play the killer pass.
SUB (RWB) – Callum Tripp – 6.5: Had a shaky start likely due to nerves but he settled and played the ball about nicely. Tripp contributed to the build-up play where possible and did set up the final chance of the game, breaking down the right before cutting the ball back to Leigh.
TEAM PERFORMANCE – 6.5: The opening few minutes were extremely poor, there’s no getting away from that. However, the performance was actually quite good after that. Dons restricted Bradford to a couple of chances whilst creating plenty of chances down the other end. Williamson’s men had more than enough chances to win this game and the stats show as much. Unfortunately the quality just wasn’t there when it came to shooting. The reassuring thing is that there was no shortage of creativity. Even when Bradford were sitting back, Dons were able to find a way through.
There were a few concerning individual performances but the collective effort was solid. The tempo did slow down too much at times and the team could’ve done with a little more urgency in the closing minutes. It’s good to see the game plan being executed properly but when you’ve got a couple of minutes left and you desperately need an equaliser, you have to throw caution to the wind more than Dons did on this occasion.
I maintain that Connor Lemonheigh-Evans and Joe Pritchard will improve the depth of this squad massively. Having both of these two and now Laurence Maguire missing as well is far from ideal but it’s good that we can still control games even with three first teamers absent. Jonathan Leko and Craig MacGillivray are still about though it seems unlikely that either of them will be featuring any time soon even if do get back to full fitness.
Next up it’s Watford in the EFL Cup. It will be interesting to see what sort of team Williamson puts out for this fixture. Although the league has to be the priority, it would be nice to see the team go toe-to-toe with Championship opposition.
If you’ve read this far then thank you! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments below and I hope you enjoyed the read!
