They might be a new football club and they may have come about under somewhat scrupulous circumstances but dare I say it, on the pitch at least there was something about the MK Dons that I liked.
Indeed, I’d go as far to say that they possessed the type of style that points to the way that Uwe Rosler would like Wigan Athletic to play over the coming months. Plenty of youth and legs out there, breaking and counter attacking at pace, harassing the opposition in their own half.
These are all attributes of a team capable of utilising the “sum of the parts being greater than the whole” mentality. They also demonstrated a downright refusal to feel sorry for themselves as indeed many teams would do after conceding three great goals. Every time they came back fighting.
Not that I expect that they play that way every week given their mid table position in League One, yet it was still enough to give us an unhealthy scare and earn themselves a replay.
Their on loan forward from Chelsea Patrick Bamford up front was particularly impressive, despite looking so preppy with his floppy hair you could imagine him walking around a leafy campus at Harvard discussing his options for next semester.
Thankfully he’s moved on to Derby now but there was enough raw pace and energy elsewhere in the team to give anyone problems and when I think back to Rosler’s former club Brentford over the years they were always like that.
Perhaps it is the large untapped market in London which unearths young, hungry footballers often discarded by the bigger clubs. I’m a firm believer that this is what we want at Wigan Athletic: players with everything to prove rather than those ambling their way to retirement. Mentioning no names there.
Oh go on then let’s put it out there: I want the new Roberts & Ellington. It might not happen in Jan, it may be next season but with a returning Shaun Maloney in the “Sir Andrew Liddell” role, we are not that far away from being a fantastic team…..
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