In their last game before Christmas, Milton Keynes 2s hosted Marlow looking to get back to winning ways, with coach Ian Knight on the sidelines to encourage the side on.

As with last week, the opening exchanges proved a tight affair with both teams having possession but unable to carve out chances, with Grant Webster, Ryan Gawley and David Emery marshalling the team well from the back. With a few defenders missing, Dan Judkowski stepped into the role of full back, and instantly looked a natural helping set MK on the front foot on several occasions. Despite several forays into the opposition half with constant running from Vaughn Watson and Arthur Lendon, MK were unable to convert their chances with the Marlow keeper making several smart saves.

With the game goalless at half time, MK came out of the blocks in the second half looking to go into Christmas on a high. First off Toby King who was a constant threat all afternoon took a quick free hit and drove the ball into the D, winning a short corner after a robust challenge from the Marlow defender. Off the resulting short MK thought they had scored their first goal following a tidy finish from Vaughn from a tight angle, but the umpire adjudged an unfair advantage off an MK body with another short corner awarded. This time Jonny Wyatt went route one, lashing the ball past the keeper to give MK a deserved lead.

From this point onwards MK didn’t look back. First Arthur found himself in space at the top off the D and laid the ball off to the on rushing Tom Johnson. Having missed the first part of the season through injury, TJ provided a timely reminder of his ability, coolly finishing despite ending up being sandwiched between keeper and defender.

MK extended their lead again with a flowing team move which began with good work from Gareth Watkins and James Evans to work the ball out of the left channel and find Toby King in the middle of park. He drove the ball forward playing in Dave McMillan on the right hand side to provide the assist for Arthur who was waiting at the far post to score the goal his efforts deserved.

Marlow then got themselves back into the game with a near post tap in. With calls from the bench to calm the game down with 10 mins left and see out the victory, Dave Breuilly was having none of it. Spurred on by the roar of the returning crowd, Dave channelled his inner Andrea Pirlo, and pinged an inch perfect pass from inside his own half to Mac at the top of the D, who calmly put the ball past the keeper to keep his scoring run going and restore the three goal cushion.

There was still time for Marlow to get one back through a flick, much to the annoyance of Sam Spencer having previously saved all the other flicks he’d faced this season.

Overall a great team performance, with MK going into the Christmas break on a high and top of the table.

Man of the match: Toby King – Midfield maestro running the show

Dick of the day: Tom Johnson – Squarial attempt at goal and using last week’s dick of the day as material for his motivational e-mail business