Franchise preview

MK Dons next up for the Glovers, or to give them their full name, the Milton Keynes Dons. To me, that still sounds wrong. The club formerly known as Wimbledon are the only football club in England and Wales to have been allowed to pick and choose their location and to have been given a place in the football league, with the vast majority of their former fans choosing to start again from scratch rather than follow the new club. A franchise, nothing more and nothing less. I used to be a bit of a fan of American football and can remember raising my eyebrows when the Baltimore Colts moved lock, stock and barrel to Indianapolis and again when the Cardinals moved from St Louis to Arizona. What happens to the fans when teams move like that? Did Baltimore Colts fans still follow their team from hundreds of miles away? Do St Louis supporters fly down to Tempe, Arizona for Cardinal games? Do Colts fans go to watch the new(ish) franchise in their city, the Ravens, or do they regard them as interlopers? It's all a bit strange, a bit foreign, a bit un-British damn it.

Be that as it may we are where we are. In the early day's of the Dons life away fans would regularly boycott trips to Milton Keynes and the nickname Franchise FC became common currency, but it's got to be said that slowly but surely the Dons are putting their difficult birth behind them and these days are now more-or-less regarded as just another team. Sad but true. The Glovers travel there tomorrow more in hope than expectation having never won at stadium:mk (all lowercase) as it's trendily known, nor at it's predecessor, the National Hockey Stadium. We also travel there in poor form, having lost 4 out of our last 6 games. The one ray of light comes with the knowledge that the Dons are on a run of even worse form, having lost 5 out of their last 6.

The bookies certainly don't expect us to get anything out of the game. The home side start as 7/10 favourites which stops me putting my fiver on them as I never bet odds-on on anything. The draw is priced at 13/5 and a Glovers win at 4/1. My fiver's going on the draw. I didn't bet on Tuesday night's game (just as well as I would have gone for the home win) so the running total remains at -£14.50p.

It will be very interesting to see who is picked for tomorrow's team and the formation chosen. Skivo has acknowledged that changes need to be made and that all places are up for grabs so we may see the return of Gavin Tomlin and Nathan Jones for example. It wouldn't surprise me either if both Scott Murray and Andy Welsh found themselves surplus to requirements tomorrow, but above all else I hope the gaffer plays two out-and-out strikers, whoever they may be. For what it's worth I would be inclined to shake things up fairly radically, as follows:

Our away form has been so poor I would go back to basics, to what worked well for Russell Slade's team at times last season: My formation would be a 4-4-2 diamond:

Alex McCarthy
Craig Alcock, Stefan Stam, Steven Caulker, Nathan Jones
JP Kalala (at the base of the diamond)
George O'Callaghan, Shaun MacDonald (left and right of the diamond, respectively)
Ryan Mason (tip of the diamond)
Jon Obika, Dean Bowditch (if fit to start, Gavin Tomlin otherwise)

Subs: Richard Martin, Danny Hutchins, Kieran Murtagh, Sam Williams, Gavin Tomlin (or Dean Bowditch), Andy Welsh, Scott Murray.

What isn't an option for me is persisting with what we know now doesn't work, especially away from home. Whoever plays and whatever formation is used we really need to get something out of tomorrow's game, to instill some belief for the rest of what is a tough month to come.