Video: Mansfield 1-2 MK Dons
JUDE Stirling scored a clinical late winner as in-form MK Dons came from behind to beat rock-bottom Mansfield on Tuesday night and cement their place at the top of League Two.
Michael Boulding's header put the Stags ahead on the half-hour mark but Lloyd Dyer grabbed his second goal in as many games to equalise in the 73rd minute, before Stirling raced clear to tuck in a cool 83rd minute finish and seal the Dons' fifth straight win.
Milton Keynes started well but Dyer, Aaron Wilbraham and Drissa Diallo all headed inviting crosses straight at Stags goalkeeper Carl Muggleton from 12 yards inside the first 20 minutes.
Mansfield then upped their game with some incisive passing football and Dons goalkeeper Willy Gueret beat out Boulding's 10-yard strike before a only a superb tackle from Luke Howell – making his full debut in place in place of the injured Alan Navarro - prevented Matthew Hamshaw tucking in the rebound.
At the other end, MK skipper Keith Andrews whistled a 22-yard free kick just over bar in the 26th minute.
But the fired-up Stags continued to carve the rattled Dons apart and Boulding netted his fifth goal of the season to deservedly put the hosts ahead in the 30th minute – the first time the Dons have conceded the first goal in a game this season.
Simon Brown raced clear onto Sean O'Hanlon's weak backpass and after Gueret pushed out his strike, Simon Dawson crossed for Boulding to rise above Stirling and head the ball inside the far post from eight yards.
It was the first goal the Dons have conceded in five games, or six-and-a-half hours of football.
The unmarked Dawson should have doubled the Stags' lead in the 37th minute but his 16-yard strike hit the outside of the post after some tame defending from the shell-shocked Dons.
Milton Keynes rallied in the closing minutes of the first half but Andrews' 25-yard free-kick flew just over the top corner two minutes before the break.
The Dons improved after the interval and Diallo's 10-yard header from Dean Lewington's corner was cleared off the line before Danny Swailes' header from Dyer's cross was too close to Muggleton.
Leon Knight then raced onto Stirling's clever flick in the 61st minute but he was denied one-on-one by a brave block from Muggleton, who was forced off injured after being clattered by the sliding Dons striker.
But Milton Keynes weren't to be denied and Dyer scored his third goal of the season to equalise in the 73rd minute.
Stirling chipped a hopeful ball into the box and as Mansfield defender Alex John-Baptiste tried to shepherd the ball back to substitute goalkeeper Jason White, Dyer slid in to nip the ball past them and poke it over the line from a yard despite John-Baptiste's valiant sliding attempt to keep it out.
And then Stirling completed the turnaround by scoring his first goal of the season to put the Dons 2-1 up seven minutes from the end.
Stirling raced clean through onto Dyer's superb angled through ball and kept his composure to fire a crisp right-foot finish past the on-rushing White and into the corner of the net.
Mansfield rallied in the dying minutes but MK keeper Gueret was quick off his line to deny Boulding one-on-one with a brave sprawling save a minute from the end as the hosts slipped to their fifth straight defeat.
Mansfield: Muggleton (White 65, booked 73 for dissent), Mullins, Bell, Hamshaw, Dawson, Brown (Arnold 77), Boulding, Buxton (booked for foul 42), John-Baptiste (booked for dissent 73), Martin, McAllister (McAliskey 88). Subs: White, McAliskey, Arnold, Kitchen, Holmes.
MK Dons: Gueret, Diallo, O'Hanlon, Swailes (booked for foul 85), Lewington, Stirling (booked for foul 34), Andrews (c) (booked for foul 79), Howell, Dyer (Edds 90), Knight (booked for foul 50) (Johnson 65), Wilbraham (Broughton 87). Subs: Edds, Broughton, Smart, Johnson, Abbey.
Referee: Mr D Drysdale.
Attendance: 1,984.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Thursday 09 February 2012
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