(Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)
(Page 2 of 3)
Crewe and Yeovil, and defeat at the hands of a resurgent Leeds United meant the Dons ended March with just one win, over a very out-of-form Oldham Athletic.April had to offer better form, and, to be fair to di Matteo, it did. Four straight wins put the Dons in a head to head race with Peterborough United for the last promotion place, Leicester City? Long Gone and already celebrating promotion.
The Dons failed to live with the pressure, and defeat at home to a poor Walsall side meant Peterborough joined Leicester in securing a place in the Championship next season.
Di Matteo has been left to prepare for the playoffs, and in the last two games the team has performed well enough to effectively relegate Northampton with a 1-0 win on their patch, and secure the same scoreline away to already relegated Hereford.
To finish third, and set up a two-legged tie with Scunthorpe is, in reality, a fantastic season, and better than most could have hoped for, especially after the bleak start.
The big question is though, just how good has the gaffer been? Well quite frankly, some of his decisions have raised some serious questions.
His reliance on scoring more than once to win a game isn’t really arguable when you look at the season as a whole, but a special mention to those last two games has to surface, and hopefully give the back four some confidence against Scunthorpe.
His persistence to keep picking Shaun Cummings is admirable, the Chelsea loanee has been struggling all season, but the boss has remained faithful to the right-back, especially considering the good performances of Luke Howell, who surely must have his eyes on the position.
He seems to still see something in Tore Andre Flo too; despite the Norwegians failure to get a goal all season. He’s made some bad decisions, that’s for sure, but can we really have forgotten all the good decisions?
Luke Chadwick is famous across the country, not just for failing to be the most glamorous of footballers, but for his incredible talent that saw Sir Alex Ferguson pick him for several years at Old Trafford.
Getting him, first on loan and then on a free in January, was a masterstroke by the Dons’ Don. Chadwick is a local lad and will inspired to prove his worth to Milton Keynes.
Jason Puncheon was another fantastic coup. Puncheon was one of the players who came to Milton Keynes with Wimbledon when they moved. He was a bit of a fan favourite back then, but attitude problems saw him fall out with Danny Wilson and eventually he was released.
Paul Fairclough sorted him out, and Puncheon made the League Two team of the year last season, attracting the interest of Plymouth Argyle in the process.
Argyle took him on, but he fell out of favour with boss Paul Sturrock after the Devon side hit some poor form. He was shipped to Milton Keynes on loan, and he’s repaid the Dons fans second welcome with incredible performance.
Indeed, when he’s on the ball, it doesn’t look like he’s ever going to lose it, see Brighton away back in last December if you really need more proof of this kid’s ability.
Perhaps the biggest and best decision of all by di Matteo however, was to be the first manager in Milton Keynes to show some confidence in local lad Sam Baldock.
1 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete