Wasteful Wolves

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 v Milton Keynes Dons 0

Milton Keynes Dons rolls off the tongue with all the elegance of a Jeremy Vine Passo Doble. They also play in white though as one sage acknowledged they are not (expletive deleted) Real Madrid. In that they fielded a side containing eleven players they are ostensibly a football team. But if this performance is a bell weather for how they normally play then manager Karl Robinson is a man of limited ambition. More telling perhaps is that he has been in post five and a half years. It took his charges all of seventy minutes to fashion their first shot albeit a speculative effort from 25 yards. They would have two further efforts before referee Nigel Miller finally brought an end to our collective misery. This was football for the insomniac.

But as Jeremy Vine well knows, it takes two to tango and Wolves were far from blameless. Though they dominated all the statistics – possession, shots on goal, shots on target, corners, throw ins - but the one statistic that really counts and which stubbornly refused to advance beyond zero was goals scored. In fairness it was not for the lack of endeavour for chances were created. It’s just that they weren’t taken. Playing in his home debut, Jordan Graham had a lively first half constantly getting the better of the Don’s right back Jordan Spence. Occasionally wasteful he did, in minute 35, fire a cross low and hard across the box only to see it parried by David Martin and scrambled to safety. Seven minutes later Benik Afobe turned and shot in one movement only to scoop the ball over the bar.

The profligacy in front of goal continued into the opening twenty minutes of the second half with Afobe on three occasions and David Edwards both guilty. The longer the game remained goalless there was a sense that in failing to make their dominance pay Wolves would be punished. The visitors did finally stretch Ikeme but their two efforts, with fifteen minutes to go, marked the summit of their ambition.

This evening the Club’s official website reads “Strong defensive display and an excellent individual effort from David Martin earned the Dons a great point away at Wolverhampton Wanderers.” To use a golfing analogy, every shot pleases somebody.

Wolves: Ikeme 6, Iorfa 6, Batth 6, Williamson 6, Golbourne 6, Henry 6, Edwards 6 Sub LeFondre, McDonald 7, Price 6, Graham 7 Sub Ojo, Afobe 6

MK Dons: Martin 7, Spence 6, McFadzean 7, Kay 6, Lewington 6, Carruthers 5, Potter 5, Murphy 5 Sub Baker, Poyet 6, Bowditch 5 Sub Powell, Maynard 5 Sub Gallagher

Attendance: 19,814

Referee: Nigel Miller 8

©Mark Brennand