MK Dons vs Bromley preview

This kinda feels like a must-win game for MK Dons.

Scott Lindsey has definitely stabilised the ship since replacing Mike Williamson, but their recent form is more than sketchy.

The Dons only have two wins from their last eleven league games, which has seen them fall away from play-off contention. Nine points is not an unsurmountable deficit to overhaul, but their inconsistency needs to be addressed.

The January transfer window has seen numerous comings and goings at the club, including the transfer of Brooklyn Ilunga from MK to Bromley.

Lindsey has been able to bring in real quality in the shape of Dan Crowley (Notts County), Jay Williams (Crawley Town), Tommy O’Reilly and Travis Patterson (Aston Villa loan), Nathan Thompson (Stevenage), Connal Trueman (Millwall), and finally Danilo Orsi (Burton Albion loan).

Several of those players have worked with Lindsey before, and it looks like he’s trying to re-create what he had at Crawley in order to seal MK Dons’ place in the postseason.

The capture of Crowley and Orsi alone should be enough to panic most in League Two. Proven goalscoring talent from midfield and upfront is like gold dust, so securing two such players seems like an embarrassment of riches.

For those who care about statistical analysis, MK Dons are one of the most possession-heavy sides in the league. Perversely, Bromley tend to match-up well against sides like that, so it will be another intriguing clash of styles. It’s easy to imagine how this game will ebb and flow.

Interestingly, the Dons average the third-highest shots-on-target per match (only Walsall and Notts County better them), so perhaps Bromley will need another special performance from Grant Smith if the defence is found wanting.

To be fair, Bromley were good for 51 minutes in the draw at Salford and excelled in making the most of their attacking opportunities in the final third.

Lots has been said about the second-half capitulation, but there were plenty of positives to hold on to going into today’s encounter.

Prior to the Salford game, my worry was the lack of goals being scored, but that seemed to be alleviated by playing Imray further forward, twinned with Cameron Congreve’s anticipation and Michael Cheek’s inevitable return to the scoresheet.

With Adam Mayor, Harry Mckirdy, and Marcus Ifil now in the building, there is a sense that it is all-change on the forward front.

Andy seems to have been on the lookout for threatening attackers who can add pace and chaos to proceedings. Is this the change that elevates Bromley from an upwardly mobile National League club to an established League Two side?

I don’t think the latter two will start at MK Dons, but Andy Woodman will likely be looking at his bench today thinking he has some game-changing quality to inject, if needed.

It will be very interesting to see if and how things change over the coming weeks and months.

The only other question marks are who plays in defence and what the defensive formation looks like. Will it be four or five? Do we have the bodies available to be flexible?

One thing is clear, if MK Dons create chances and Bromley’s defence isn’t ready to stand up to the challenge, there will only be one winner.

What would you do?

From Bromley with Love XI

Smith

Imray Kacurri Webster Elerewe Mayor

Arthurs Charles

Thompson

Cheek

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Please note all match photographs in this article are by Martin Greig - please follow him on Twitter here

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