Dons end the year with victory over Crawley Town

An off-colour MK Dons rounded out 2023 with their fourth victory in a row as they saw off Crawley Town 2-0 at Stadium MK on Friday night.

Joe Tomlinson gave Dons the perfect start, firing the home side in front after just two minutes, but the visitors looked the better of the two sides for long periods.

Dons lived a charmed life for much of the game, and needed keeper Craig MacGillivray to keep them in front with a string of top saves. But Alex Gilbey would fire in from the edge of the box with eight minutes to go, before Laurence Maguire's late red card reduced the visitors to ten with five minutes remaining.

The third win over the festive period means Dons end 2023 in sixth place in League Two.

After the 1-0 win over Colchester United on Boxing Day, Mike Williamson made two changes to his side for the final game of 2023 - Dawson Devoy and Conor Grant came in for Cameron Norman and Ethan Robson, while Jonathan Leko kept his place in the side.

And they barely could have made a better start when Joe Tomlinson fired home his fifth goal of the season after just two minutes. Put in behind by Max Dean's sensational outside-of-the-boot pass in the centre circle, Tomlinson raced beyond Kellan Gordon to fire under keeper Corey Addai to give Don the lead.

The reverse fixture back in August highlighted Crawley's fitness and press, and the game at Stadium MK showed distinct similarities barely had the ball hit the back of the net. The visitors were relentless in closing Dons down whenever they were on the ball, and it saw plenty of individual errors forced by the hosts.

MJ Williams, Dawson Devoy and Jack Payne were all guilty of creating chances for Crawley by giving the ball away cheaply. Keeper Craig MacGillivray, who has been something of a spectator for large spells in games of late, needed to be on his mettle though. The stopper denied Danilo Orsi on two occasions, and made a brilliant stop to keep Gordon from firing in an equaliser after he replicated Tomlinson's earlier break in behind.

Off-colour though they were, Dons still had a chance to further extend their lead when Conor Grant pulled the trigger from just inside the box, and a deflection threatened to put it beyond Addai again, only for the Crawley keeper to readjust as he was diving to claw the ball clear.

Early changes in the second-half for Dons seemed to stem the tide initially, certainly the introduction of Ethan Robson gave them more midfield rigidity and structure, while Ellis Harrison gave them more of a target to aim at further forwards. And with those changes came chances for the home side too, but that second goal evaded them.

Gilbey should have hit the target when he was picked out by Tomlinson, but slid wide, while Harrison almost made an immediate impact but shanked his effort well-off target. MJ Williams too took aim from range, drawing a save from Addai, while Tomlinson nearly added a second from a tight angle too.

Crawley though would ride out the storm and should have drawn with at least one of three great opportunities. Adam Campbell should have done better when he was faced with just MacGillivray to beat but was once more denied by the keeper, while Orsi headed wide from inside six yards and a goal-mouth scramble was somehow kept out by the Dons defence.

The final ten minutes though would see everything fall apart for Crawley. With two players down through injury, Dons attacked on the right, with substitute Cameron Norman breaking, pulling back to find Gilbey to take a touch and rifle home the second with eight minutes remaining.

The Red Devils would suffer another blow three minutes later when Laurence Maguire, booked in the first-half, picked up his second yellow card to reduce the visitors to ten men for the remainder.

Keeper Addai was called into action three times in stoppage time to prevent Dons from further inflating the score, though victory was already secured.

Referee: Ross Joyce

Attendance: 5,945

MK Dons: MacGillivray, Lewington, O'Hora, Williams, Tomlinson, Gilbey, Payne, Devoy (Robson 53), Grant (Harrison 53), Leko (Norman 78), Dean (Eisa 78)

Subs not used: Kelly, Smith, Tripp

Crawley Town: Addai, Gordon (Roles 66), Ransom, Conroy (Mukena 88), Maguire, Adeyemo (Lolos 66), Wright, Darcy, Kelly, Campbell, Orsi

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

Booked: Maguire, Dean, Grant, Gilbey

Sent off: Maguire