City went into the match with manager Lennie Lawrence under severe pressure after a dreadful run of results in the league. MK Dons manager Stuart Murdoch with assistant (and City legend) Jimmy Gilligan, had seen their side win away for the first time this season at Colchester last Saturday and would have seen this as a good opportunity to progress.
The ground is ideally suited to hosting the shell of a side that is MK Dons. It’s small, open to the elements, and located in the most soulless, characterless dump in the whole of England. The 251 City fans who made the trip were in an open seated stand behind the goal. The stand was held together with tarpaulin and scaffolding. West Brom fans were told not to jump up and down (boing boing) on it last season as it wasn’t safe for that sort of thing. After the soaking we received last year it was blessed relief to have clear skies for the game last night.
You wonder where the home fans have come from – as far as I could tell their support was made up of kids and weirdos. Two years ago there was no league team in Milton Keynes. It’s a well documented disgrace that the football league and FA allowed the incumbent board to move Wimbledon to Milton Keynes. The club now shares nothing at all with the club that was Wimbledon, they don’t even play in the same colours any more, turning out in all white against us last night. I personally hope they disappear down the leagues as quickly as possible, to prove comprehensively that it doesn’t work.
It was especially pleasing to see City turn them over so easily. In true cardiffcity.com match reporter style I got into the ground late, but just in time to see the goals go flying in.
The City team was changed from Saturday. Neil Alexander made his debut, Collins came in at centre back for Gabbidon, and reserve player Byron Anthony making his debut at right back.
Team: Alexander; Barker, Vidmar, Collins, Anthony; Parry, Boland, Bullock, McAnuff; Lee, Thorne.
The first goal came on the quarter hour. City had been pressing from the start and it was clear from the off that the home side was even worse than the poor side we played last November. City forced a corner down their left. Mcanuff put in a decent ball to the far post which PETER THORNE easily headed home through home goalkeeper Scott Bevan. 1-0.
This completely knocked the stuffing out of the home side, and they were soon two goals down as a Paul Parry run down the left resulted in a pull back to the near post where LEE BULLOCK toe ended the ball into the bottom corner from close range for 2-0. Within two minutes the lead was extended to three, as PETER THORNE struck with a right footed shot finding its way into the net from close range. 3-0.
We took our foot right of the gas after that, and it really was very dull for the rest of the half as the City fans amused themselves with singing Lennie Lawrence songs.
Half time 0 – 3
The second half was always going to be an anti-climax with the game already won. We kept on passing the ball around without too much intent, Paul Parry missing the best of the early chances as he slid in at the far post for a low cross, but couldn’t get the killer touch. On the hour the home side had Harry Ntimban-Zeh sent off for a professional foul, after he pulled Peter Thorne down when he looked to be through on goal. I thought the sending off was a little bit harsh, but the young looking referee showed him the red card and off he went.
The resulting free kick saw James Collins blast the ball into the wall, with one of the home defenders getting an almighty whack in the thigh.
City extended their lead further with 20 minutes to go as BYRON ANTHONY headed home well from an inswinging Parry corner, to claim a goal on his debut. 4-0.
Joe Ledley made his City debut, coming on for Mcanuff, and Campbell got a run out coming on for Thorne. Ledley looked sharp down the left hand side, and Campbell was unlucky not to score when the home keeper saved his curling effort. Alan Lee also had a far post header clawed away when it looked easier to score.
With only ten men the home team were always going to struggle, but gave their “fans” something to cheer about when they scored late on to make it 1-4 when McLeod fired home a right footed shot from the angle.
First things first, it was nice to see City win for a change. It’s been a long time. There are still plenty of problems for Lawrence to mull over before the game at Wolves on Saturday. An away win against a poor side in the Carling Cup is only papering over the cracks as far as our league form goes, and I still think Lennie has taken this side as far as he can. But to take the positives hopefully this will breed some much needed confidence in the side, and also show that we can score goals without Earnie. Fingers crossed.
External reports
Western Mail