In the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries, when men had more money than sense they would construct a folly. These were buildings whose appearance would suggest they held a great purpose, but were often constructed primarily for decoration – their extravagant architecture used as a means to bely the fact they were merely empty monuments.
Peter Winkelman didn’t exist in the 16th, 17th or 18th Centuries, sadly. So rather than whack a neo-Gothic castle keep atop a nearby hillside, or construct an elaborate pineapple shaped Tuscan summer-house overlooking his ornamental ponds, he bought someone else’s football club and moved it to Milton Keynes. Then, for the complete folly experience, he put it in a hulking great stadium, with six times the capacity it could ever have needed.
Milton Keynes ‘Dons’ are not a football club; they’re one man’s mid-life crisis. And so it would be remiss of us to fuel the myth of the former by asking someone to cover a match on their culturally-bereft turf.
Thankfully there was to be great satisfaction in following this from afar. Barely in the game for the first half, Rovers held their hosts to a single goal thanks largely to the saves of Marko Marosi, before turning in two goals of their own after the break – both from the boot of John Marquis.
We’ve had little to shout about this season, but taking six points off this soulless empty shell of a football venture certainly warms the heart. May they tumble downwards, ever downwards.
by Glen Wilson
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