Previewing MK Dons’ home game against Harrogate Town, kicking off at 3pm at Stadium MK

The biggest League Two attendance of the season is in the offing for MK Dons on Saturday when they take on Harrogate Town at Stadium MK.

The club’s free ticket initiative is set to attract more than 20,000 spectators to the game to see Paul Warne’s side aim to extend their unbeaten run to 11 games against the struggling Sulphurites.

While Dons are ten unbeaten heading into the game, bottom club Harrogate are on a run of their own as they scrap against the drop to the National League. Simon Weaver’s men are five unbeaten en route to MK1, picking up nine points from a possible 15, with four teams now separated by just a point at the wrong end of the stack.

Harrogate have done Dons big favours during this recent run too, beating promotion chasers Cambridge, while taking points off Chesterfield and league leaders Bromley, allowing Paul Warne’s side to move into third spot, seven points from the summit.

Aaron Collins’ last minute penalty against Cambridge last Saturday saved Dons from their first defeat since New Year’s Day, maintaining their longest unbeaten run of the season.

When the sides met just before Christmas, Dons were emphatic winners at a foggy Exercise Stadium, with Collins and captain Alex Gilbey both bagging braces in a 4-0 win.

Gilbey also scored a goal of the season contender when the sides last met at MK1. After a dreadful game, Harrogate thought they had picked up a deserved point when Zico Asare equalised in the final minute of the game to make it 1-1, before Gilbey’s thunderbolt a couple of minutes later won it for Scott Lindsey’s struggling side.

In five meetings, Dons have won four of them, with Harrogate’s only win coming in the first game back in September 2023, with a 1-0 win at Stadium MK after a Warren O’Hora own goal.

Dons need to look back to September for their last home defeat in the league, when they were turned over 2-1 by Accrington Stanley, while Harrogate have only won three games on the road all year, but have drawn six times away from Wetherby Road.

Referee Alex Chilowicz will take charge of the game, his 28th outing of the campaign. He has shown 93 yellow cards, two reds and awarded four penalties this season.

Twice Dons have been officiated by the American, with a win and a defeat, both of them games at Stadium MK, both of them against Colchester United and both of them ending 1-0. Harrogate have lost both times he has been in charge of their games.

Assistants Rob Smith and Joseph Larkin will run the lines with Fourth Official Gary Parsons.

Bookmakers bet365.com have Dons at 1/3 to win the game, with Harrogate out at 15/2 and 15/4 the draw.