MK Dons v Port Vale preview – can Valiants triumph at early strugglers?
MK Dons v Port Vale preview: can the Valiants take advantage as they visit winless Milton Keynes?
Match Info
Venue: MK Dons stadium | Date: 16th August 2022, 7.45pm | Competition: League One
Predict the score
Team news
It’s difficult to see too many changes from the Vale side which played Bolton at the weekend. New signings Jack Stevens and Ellis Harrison will probably keep their places and perhaps the only issue will be whether captain Tom Conlon, still recovering fitness after his long spell out, is fit to start his second game in four days. Vale’s only injury concerns are David Worrall and James Wilson so there are plenty of options in most positions with Brad Walker and Gavin Massey making noticeable contributions from the bench.
Struggling MK Dons have a number of players who are expected to miss this game – they include striker Will Grigg, Mo Eisa, Daniel Harvie, Tennai Watson, Josh McEachran and Nathan Holland.
Dons switched their formation during the defeat to Ipswich Town at the weekend. After coach Liam Manning praised their move to three at the back, it’s likely that the home side will line-up in a 3-5-2 formation for the visit of the Valiants.
Man in charge
Liam Manning was appointed as Head Coach in 2021 and led the club to the play-offs last season. Despite this season’s poor start, he boasts a 51% win ratio.
Pre-match quotes
We have to be realistic – we’re in a transition, a rebuild, we’ve got new players and some key ones missing through injury. That aside, our performance was not up to the levels required. The players are disappointed, everyone is, and we have to learn quickly ahead of Tuesday…
MK Dons head coach Liam Manning
I thought it (the draw against Bolton) was a good game to watch – it was end to end. They defended well so you have to give them credit for that but we’ll take the point and go into Tuesday night…
Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke
Familiar faces
The MK Dons squad features Zak Jules who enjoyed a disappointing loan spell with the Valiants back in 2018. Signed on loan by then manager Neil Aspin, he was dropped after three appearances. However, Jules put his career back on track with strong spells at Macclesfield Town and Walsall, earning a move to MK Dons in 2021. He made his first League appearance of the season on Saturday and could therefore be in line to face the Valiants on Tuesday evening.
Face from the past
Defensive midfielder Antony Kay (pictured) spent four years with MK Dons between 2012 and 2016 helping the club to promotion in 2015. In total, Kay made 161 appearances for the side. In 2017, Kay was signed by Michael Brown for the Valiants where he made 70 appearances before his release in 2019.
Through the years…
We don’t agree with MK Dons co-opting Wimbledon FC’s history, so for us the first meeting between the two sides took place in August 2004 when it finished in a 3-2 victory for the Valiants with Ian Armstrong scoring twice.
The last League trip to MK Dons was in 2019 when it finished 1-1 with Tom Conlon on the mark for the Valiants.
Last time we met…
Vale’s last trip to MK Dons was a happy one as the side recorded a 1-0 FA Cup win thanks to a winner from David Worrall.
Overall record
5 Port Vale wins | 5 draws | 4 Port Vale losses
From the archives
A brief history of…
MK Dons were created in 2004 and (much to this website’s displeasure and that of many other fans) took over the fixtures and adopted the history of Wimbledon FC.
Owner Pete Winkleman initially refused to counter any idea of the club handing Wimbledon’s history and trophies back to phoenix club AFC Wimbledon with Winkleman bizarrely arguing that AFC Wimbledon had betrayed their club and “left their team before their team left them.”
However, in 2007, after an increasing number of fans protests and talks with the Football Supporters Federation, MK Dons finally agreed to “recognise and genuinely regret the hurt which was caused to supporters of the former Wimbledon FC by the move to Milton Keynes.” The club renounced any claim to Wimbledon FC’s history up to 2004 and transfer the Wimbledon FC trophy replicas, copyrights, web domain names and other patrimony to Merton Borough.
Initially based at the National Hockey Stadium, MK Dons moved to its current stadium in 2007. The club has won promotion three times during its brief history.
Were you paying attention?
Our traditional quiz…
- Who is the current MK Dons head coach?
- What was the score the last time the two teams met?
- In which year did the club move into its present stadium?
- In what year were MK Dons formed?
Answers below (no cheating)…
- Liam Manning
- MK Dons 0-1 Port Vale
- 2007
- 2004