Disappointing Dons beaten on the road by Crawley Town

A lacklustre MK Dons tasted League Two defeat for the first time in League Two on Tuesday night, going down 2-1 at Crawley Town.

Nick Tsaroulla opened the scoring on 16 minutes to give the hosts a deserved lead as Dons looked well off the pace against a rampant Red Devils.

Mo Eisa scored an unlikely equaliser against the run of play 11 minutes later when his strike squirmed under keeper Corey Addai, and it appeared to give Dons some semblence of hope going into the second-half.

But a slow start to the half saw them fall behind again when Danilo Orsi fired past Craig MacGillivray, and Jay Wright then crashed a header against the bar as the home side threatened to put the game to bed.

Dons barely caused a stir in the second-half to get back into it, Alex Gilbey and Jonathan Leko missing the target with efforts as Graham Alexander’s side suffered their first loss of the league campaign.

After winning their opening two games with the same personnel, Graham Alexander stuck with tried and tested for the trip to Crawley Town, naming an unchanged side at the People's Pension Stadium.

Having looked good value for their opening two league wins, Dons were in for a rude awakening against a Crawley Town side who had made a promising start of their own.

The usual midfield machine of MJ Williams, Ethan Robson and skipper Alex Gilbey were written out of the game for the opening 25 minutes as Crawley simply overran the visitors and allowed them no opportunity to get any sort of control.

And it showed with the hosts taking a well-deserved lead after 16 minutes. Nick Tsaroulla was allowed space to break in behind before flashing his shot past Craig MacGillivray into the top corner.

Looking distinctly second-best, it needed a stroke of good fortune for Dons to get level, but it came 11 minutes later when Mo Eisa, with Jonathan Leko up in support, took it alone and saw his shot squirm under keeper Corey Addai to draw level.

The goal woke Dons from their slumber too, and both Eisa and Leko had decent chances to fire their side ahead but fired over the bar, while MacGillivray needed to scamper across his line to prevent Crawley retaking the lead when Jack Tucker's header hit one of his own team-mates and threatened to dribble over the line.

The promise they started to show late in the first-half though would not translate into the early second-half as a poor restart saw them concede again to a bright-starting home side. A quick-passing move from the home side saw Liam Kelly and Dom Telford involved as Danilo Orsi fires past MacGillivray seven minutes into the second-half.

It could have been much worse too, with Jay Wright hammering a header against the cross-bar while Orsi forced MacGillivray into a good stop later on as Dons barely threatened.

The introduction of Dawson Devoy with 21 minutes to go almost paid immediate dividends for Alexander's side when he almost picked out the industrious Gilbey's run in behind the defence, but it was about as close as Dons came.

Referee: Daniel Middleton

Attendance: 3,282

Crawley Town: Addai, Gordon (Campbell 49), Conroy, Kelly, Rnadom, Orsi, Darcy (Khaleel 84), Telford (Lolos 64), Tsaroulla, J Williams, Wright

Subs not used: Ashby-Hammond, Henry, Mukwena, Swyer

MK Dons: MacGillivray, Tucker (Hunter 60) , O'Hora, Norman, Harvie, MJ Williams (Holland 87), Gilbey, Robson (Devoy 69), Leko, Eisa

Subs not used: Harness, Dean, Ilunga, Scholtz

Booked: Robson