A stunning fall from grace: How MK Dons went from promotion hopefuls to League Two relegation

MK Dons will play League Two football next year. A situation bordering on impossible when considering it 12 months ago, the reality of the game has come to bite at Stadium MK, and bite hard.

Sunday's games played out the way they did - a 0-0 draw with Burton - Dons knew they needed something special to happen to keep their hopes alive of staying in the division they came to close to escaping last term. It just wasn't meant to be.

But why? Why was this season such a disaster?

There aren't many falls from grace quite as spectacular as this one. From building one of the best squads to have been put together in League One, Sporting Director Liam Sweeting went to work as he watched it first get dismantled, then built one worthy of relegation.

The season started poorly. Ironically, it would be Cambridge to deal the first blow to the new-look Dons on the opening day of the season, winning 1-0 at the Abbey Stadium. Looking around him at a host of new, untried faces and barely a sprinkling of the game-changers and star power he had at his disposal mere three months earlier, head coach Liam Manning was set up to fail.

There were moments in that early season period where we all thought the problems were solved - winning at Watford in the Carabao Cup with ease before a 4-0 thrashing of Morecambe in the league threatened the start of the new dawn. But it was more like a dying cough.

The gloom got worse, results and performances did not improve, and just before Christmas, Manning's time was done. But though the writing appeared to have been on the wall, the shambolic nature of Dons behind the scenes made the next few weeks nothing short of a comedy sketch.

Seemingly without a plan after sacking the coach, injured skipper Dean Lewington put off his hamstring surgery to take caretaker charge, but he could not delay much further and went under the knife while Dons played Leicester City in the Carabao Cup. Midfielder Bradley Johnson stepped up and stepped in - still, there was no head coach.

After 12 days, Dons hired Mark Jackson - a Leeds United first-team coach they said they had done their research on when they had hired Manning 16-months earlier. But even a change at the top could not alter Dons' course.

Despite suffering a defensive injury crisis with Lewington and then Warren O'Hora out long-term, the recruitment machine landed attacking options - albeit much needed - before getting a new centre-back in position in the form of Anthony Stewart... only to see the Aberdeen loanee suspended and then injured before he could even kick a ball for his new side.

February would be disastrous. The fixtures were not kind, with back-to-back road-trips to Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday before hosting Ipswich Town, but three defeats and 11 goals conceded felt ominious. Then came a 1-0 defeat to Port Vale.

It felt like a watershed moment. The end of days. The worst it could possibly get. A hopeless, directionless, pitiful performance that day sealed the drop in many eyes (ours included). But there would be signs of life.

Seven games unbeaten - 13 valuable points, crucially beating teams in and around them in the table which snatching some unlikely others along the way meant Dons had control of their fate. Again though, dying coughs.

There would still be heartbreak and moments to set up the tense final day: a 97th minute equaliser for Cheltenham, and blowing a 4-1 lead with 20 minutes to go against play-off bound Barnsley. Four points dropped, four points which would have seen them safe.

It meant everything came down to the final day, a win would be enough to secure their safety. It wouldn’t fall for them though. Despite having 31 efforts on goal, seeing three cleared off the line, Dons would not be able to find the back of the net against Burton. The 0-0 draw would not be enough.

Around 1,700 travelling supporters left the Pirelli Stadium with their head in their hands, some upset, some angry. All demanding answers. We all are.