MK Dons end their away-day curse with win at Sunderland

Scott Fraser's third penalty of the season saw Dons end their 14-month away-day drought by beating Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light.

Despite falling behind to a Max Power deflected effort after just 12 minutes, Dons reacted brilliantly to be back on level terms within four minutes courtesy of Cameron Jerome's deft header. And barely a minute into the second half, Fraser won and converted a penalty to give the visitors the lead, but it would be backs-to-the-wall for the remainder of the game as Sunderland poured forwards, but they could not find a way past an excellent Andrew Fisher in the Dons net as Russell Martin's side held on for their first league win away from home since September 2019.

The result also sees them up to 14th in League One.

After naming a dramatically altered team in the last two games against Eastleigh and Southampton U21s, it was a more familiar look to Dons' line-up at the Stadium of Light. Without Regan Poole and Daniel Harvie out wide, Matthew Sorinola and Ben Gladwin started as wing-backs.

The visitors' defence made a shaky start to proceedings though, and found themselves trailing, perhaps, unfortunately, after just 12 minutes when Max Power's deflected shot beat Andrew Fisher.

The lead would last just four minutes though as a well-worked free-kick from Ben Gladwin paid off, finding the head of Cameron Jerome who flicked the ball over Remy Matthews to equalise.

It certainly eased Dons' nerves too, with the defence feeling more adjusted to the game and began to look a bit more threatening. Scott Fraser and Ste Walker were both dangerous on the ball coming forwards, while both Sorinola and Gladwin both saw a lot of the ball in advanced areas, but could not quite cause Matthews any problems.

Dons have made a habit of starting halves brightly and catching teams cold after the restart and it's exactly what they did to take the lead within a minute of the second half starting. With the ball pitched into the Sunderland area, goal-scorer Power swiped at the ball but kicked Fraser instead, leaving the referee no choice but to award a penalty. Having won the spot kick, Fraser did the business.

From there though, it was one-way traffic as Sunderland now sought parity. And they should have got it on 66 minutes but Will Grigg somehow missed an open goal from a yard out.

Sunderland continued to keep the pressure on Dons, hemming them into their own half for the remainder of the game, but after a great stop from Fisher to deny Denver Hume, Fraser should have put it to bed with seven minutes to go as he was fed through by substitute Lasse Sorensen, but Matthews was a match to it.

Fisher though would be the busier keeper in the closing stages, making three excellent stops to deny Sunderland an equalise, including a fingertip save in stoppage time as Dons held on to pick up their first away win in more than a year.

Sunderland: Matthews, Willis (Diamond 86), Wright, Power (Maguire 67), Wyke, Gooch, O'Nien, Scowen, Grigg (Graham 72), Leadbitter, Hume

Subs not used: Burge, Dobson, O'Brien, Sanderson

MK Dons: Fisher, Lewington, Keogh, O'Hora, Gladwin (Cargill 76), Sorinola, Kasumu, Thompson (Sorensen 80), Fraser, Jerome, Walker (Morris 63)

Subs not used: Nicholls, Davies, Freeman, Johnson