MK vs Old Loughtonians

This week saw a strong squad available for a trip to Old Loughtonians.

We knew we would face strong opposition, but with the squad almost at full strength we felt confident of putting in a performance against the former national league outfit.

After a slightly delayed trip we arrived at the old Olympic pitches in bright sunshine, the squad eager to play piled into the changing rooms to hear the wise words of Coach Anderson.

Tenacity was the word of the day (or was it Tenacious D) a word to describe persistence and determined play or perhaps he wanted to play tribute to the greatest and best team talk in the world… either way we left the changing rooms pumped and ready to go and likely to choose a dictionary to be next weeks match requirement.

After a good warm up the game started and Milton Keynes were put on the back foot after conceding an unlucky penalty corner after a clearance deemed to have hit Stephens foot inside the D. Debutant Sam Jackson in goal managed to get a toe to the resulting short corner, but the power on the flick meant it found the bottom corner 1-0. Milton Keynes came to life after conceding and started to string some passes together and not long after Liam played a lifted ball into the D, which proved too much to handle for the Old Loughts defense and a penalty corner was awarded. Off the back of scoring last week Jamie stepped up confident and dispatched the corner with a ferocious flick. 1-1.

Old Loughts replied shortly after when a quickly taken free hit gave their forward enough time to trap a pass and get a reverse shot away 2-1. Old Loughts were moving the ball around nicely whereas we were struggling to string passes together. The home team were building pressure. A short corner was cleared expertly off the line by Chaz another foray into the D had Sam swiftly off his line to snuff out a chance, but the ball was fired back in and deflected into the goal 3-1. Milton Keynes managed to string some passes together after this and a ball struck into the D was deflected onto the outside of the post by Stephen. Then a nice move down the left lead to a short corner just on the half time whistle, unfortunately the flick was charged down well. Half Time.

As we gathered in the goal to hear some more about the meaning of tenacity the home team turned on the water cannons clearly deciding it was time for MK to have an early shower. We found ourselves 3-1 down wet and angry was this to be the catalyst for a much improved second half? Not yet apparently as we fell a further two goals behind, the first some good work down the baseline pulled back to an in form Danny who cleverly beat Sam at the near post 4-1, the second a penalty stroke as Coops was judged to have taken down their forward deliberately in the D 5-1.

With 30 minutes to go and 5-1 down Milton Keynes started to play and carve out openings, short passes were key, the midfield worked tirelessly in the second half to support the attackers. Jamie won a short corner with some direct running and “the fastest hands” Frazer has ever seen. The resulting shortcorner was deflected by Liam onto the foot of the postman. Captain Nick stepped up and sent their keeper the wrong way 5-2.

We continued to dominate all battles across the pitch and again Liam the provider sent another ball into the D, which fell fortuitously to Mikey with an empty net beckoning. Fresh from signing a brand new contract with the club, boasting a rather hefty goal scoring bonus he decided rather than cash in at the clubs expense he would push the ball wide* (something he won’t be doing in season). The team was not disheartened by this “miss” and continued to press forward looking for ways to score. Another short corner was awarded to Milton Keynes and man of the match Jamie once again left the keeper with no chance 5-3.

Milton Keynes continued to carve out chances, but the goalkeeper managed to keep Milton Keynes at bay with some good saves.

The final whistle went with the score 5-3 another loss and another 5 goals conceded, which suggests more hard work in the three weeks leading to the season. Milton Keynes should be happy with the way they finished the game taking command of the game for the last 30 minutes.

Next week Banbury come to Milton Keynes for a 12:30 push back.

*this may or may not be true