Dean's double downs Morecambe as Dons win again

Max Dean was the pantomime villain for Morecambe on the Saturday before Christmas as his brace secured MK Dons a 3-1 victory.

Dean opened the scoring on 31 minutes when he latched onto Alex Gilbey's ball, but Dons were pegged back by JJ McKiernan's header not long after the second-half restart.

Joe Tomlinson would restore Dons' lead on 69 minutes before Dean capitalised on a blocked clearance in stoppage time to put in his 11th of the season as Dons moved up to ninth.

With MJ Williams having served his suspension, he returned to the fold for the trip to Morecambe. Daniel Harvie missed out though, having picked up up a knock in training in the week.

With both sides in decent form - Dons six unbeaten in League Two, and Morecambe fresh off a 5-0 win last time out - it was a real thumping opening 15 minutes as both sides looked to get the early advantage. While Morecambe looked quick to get forwards, Dons' patient passing nearly unlocked the home defence on a couple of occasions, but both Max Dean and Jack Payne saw efforts fly wide of the mark.

Typically for the season, Max Dean was threatening to become the pantomime villain for the Morecambe fans as he won free-kicks, and voiced his discontent to referee Lewis Smith. And on 31 minutes, he got their backs up even more when he fired Dons into the lead. Latching onto Alex Gilbey's measured pass, the teenager rounded keeper Adam Smith to coolly slot home his tenth of the season.

He thought he had his 11th eight minutes later too when he lashed home from 10-yards, only to see it chalked off after Joe Tomlinson had strayed offside.

Morecambe though would draw level with their first decent attempt on goal, early in the second-half. Williams thought Adam Mayor had run the ball out of play six minutes after the restart, but his cross made it to JJ McKiernan at the near post, who directed his header past MacGillivray to equalise.

For ten minutes, the hosts were playing a higher and higher line and Dons struggled to get out of their own half, but when they did, Conor Grant was furious Dean did not return the bal when they broke through on goal, the striker opting to go it alone only to see his strike blocked.

Joe Tomlinson would restore Dons' lead though with 21 minutes to go when he took on ball just inside the Morecambe half, bursting to the edge of the box and picking out the bottom corner for his fourth goal of the season.

The fiercely contested affair saw plenty of challenges flying in in the latter stages, as the visitors looked to extend their lead but came up against some brave Morecambe blocks to deny them troubling Smith, though the keeper nearly had egg on his face when he almost let a Dean strike slip through his fingers.

Dean would get the last laugh in stoppage time though. Joel Senior seemed distracted when a loose ball blew back onto the pitch, and his clearance from the corner was blocked by Gilbey into the path of the striker, who took advantage of the keeper out of position, sliding in his second and Dons' third.

man comes to play it out, but then gets the ball in play too, fires the clearance against Gilbey, it falls into Dean's path and with the keeper out of position, rolls home his second and Dons' third!

Referee: Lewis Smith

Attendance: 4,551 (183)

Morecambe: A Smith, Tutonda (Melbourne 86), Bedeau, Songo'o (Taylor 77), Bloxham (Brown 77), King, McKiernan (C Smith 86), Mayor, Senior, Slew, Connolly

Subs not used: Pedley, Stokes, Davenport

MK Dons: MacGillivray, Lewington, O'Hora, Norman, Tomlinson, Gilbey, Robson, Williams, Grant (Leko 65), Payne, Dean

Subs not used: Kelly, Harrison, Eisa, Smith, Devoy, Tripp

Booked: Connolly, Williams, McKiernan, Slew