Dons ease past Harrogate to close gap at the top

A packed crowd did not leave Stadium MK disappointed as MK Dons cruised past Harrogate Town 4-1 to move up to second in League Two.

Despite a lacklustre opening half, Dons overturned Tobias Brenan’s 24th minute strike to go in 2-1 up at the interval, with goals form Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Luke Offord.

Aaron Collins netted a fine solo effort six minutes after the restart to effectively put the result beyond the bottom side, though Ben Wiles’ header on 63 minutes made sure.

The result moves Dons up to second spot in the division, now within five points of leaders Bromley.

Dons made a couple of changes to the side which started at Cambridge United a week prior, with injured Curtis Nelson missing out on the game, with Aaron Collins coming into the side, and Luke Offord dropping back from midfield into the defence.

Aaron Nemane also came into the side ahead of Gethin Jones who dropped to the bench.

While the community day initiative saw more than 23,000 tickets snapped up for the game, none were in for a treat of football in the opening half, even though they would see three come before the break.

Dons looked out-of-sorts defensively without Nelson, and it was in fact the visitors, who started the day bottom, who looked the more threatening, without really giving Craig MacGillivray much to work for.

Russian Hepburn-Murphy had a couple of half-chances for Dons to get into Henry Gray’s goal, but in truth it was the visitors who took a deserved lead after 24 minutes when Tobias Brenan swept home Dons failed to clear their lines fully.

Until that point, Dons had looked pretty ordinary but were level within five minutes when Hepburn-Murphy’s sheer determination saw him bundle past keeper Gray to fire back.

From there, Dons would be the better of the two sides, with Ben Wiles and Alex Gilbey both firing straight at the Harrogate keeper.

But right on the stroke of half-time, Dons would net a second when Offord was first to Dan Crowley’s stoppage time corner, heading home his third goal of the season to send Dons in 2-1 up at the break.

And that goal changed the complexion of the game heading into the second-half as the home side took control of the afternoon. It took just six second-half minutes for them to double the lead courtesy of a fine Aaron Collins effort, cutting onto his left-foot and bending the ball home from just inside the box.

Comfortably in control at 3-1, Paul Warne was able to make changes on the hour, introducing Gethin Jones and Liam Kelly, and it was the latter who made an almost immediate impact, crossing for Ben Wiles to deftly head the ball past Gray for 4-1 on 63 minutes. Harrogate’s afternoon would go from bad to worse when the keeper was forced off through injury seven minutes later.

Dons cruised through the remainder of the afternoon without much trouble, though Jones could have added a fifth late in the day when he raced through, and with Gilbey in support, opted to go alone to see substitute keeper Sam Waller put his effort onto the post.

Referee: Alex Chilowicz

Attendance: 23, 465 (314)

MK Dons: MacGillivray, Offord (Tomlinson 72), Ekpiteta, Sanders, Nemane (Jones 59), Mellish, Crowley (Kelly 59), Gilbey, Wiles, Collins (Leko 81), Hepburn-Murphy (Hogan 46)

Subs not used: Trueman, Lemonheigh-Evans

Harrogate Town: Gray (Waller 70), Slater, Evans, Norris, Duke-McKenna (Sutton 81), Acquah (Bennett 67), Headman, Smith, Gibson (Faulkner 67), Heffernan, Brenan (Thomson 81)

Subs not used: Burrell, Horton

Booked: Sanders