Pre-season: Hitchin Town 0-6 MK Dons

Aaron Collins announced his arrival on the scene for MK Dons with a hat-trick in 12 minutes against Hitchin Town as part of a 6-0 win.

The former Bolton Wanderers man netted on seven minutes, 11 minutes and 12 minutes to complete his trio in an emphatic start to pre-season on English soil for Paul Warne’s side.

Nathan Thompson headed in on the hour to make it 4-0, before two late Jonathan Leko goals completed the rout in a thoroughly positive afternoon for Warne’s men.

Splitting the team in two, changing on the hour-mark, Paul Warne named a strong side to open the game at Top Field, offering travelling fans their first sights of Gethin Jones, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Aaron Collins and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, and only a third look at Nathan Thompson, who suffered a knee injury early in his second appearance for the club back in February.

And it was one of those new faces which did remarkable damage in the opening 12 minutes to endear him to his new supporters.

Having already had half a sight of goal in the opening five minutes, Collins netted his first of a hat-trick when he bundled his way through to roll into the bottom corner two minutes later.

When Rushian Hepburn-Murphy was upended four minutes later, Collins did the business from the spot to send keeper Tyrese Kamara the wrong way.

Barely 60 seconds later, he embarrassed the keeper by nicking the ball from him on the edge of the box, rolling his hat-trick into the empty net.

There was almost an incredulous rise from the fans when he missed the target for a fourth just a few minutes later.

The lightning start left the home-side shell-shocked, and Dons kept them firmly under the thumb for the duration of the first-half. Hepburn-Murphy had a penalty appeal turned away before both sides took a much-needed water break, while Nathan Thompson and Gethin Jones both also missed the target to add to the score before the break.

The pattern continued into the second-half too. Hepburn-Murphy looked to grow increasingly frustrated at a lack of a goal, but twice took a touch too many and missed the opportunity to pull the trigger, while Alex Gilbey had a powerful effort blocked at course.

With 11 changes lined up on the sidelines just past the hour-mark, Thompson met Lemonheigh-Evans’ corner with a powerful header to make it 4-0 ahead of Warne’s sweeping changes.

With Hitchin doing the same, making ten changes of their own shortly afterwards, the game fizzled as a spectacle towards the end, though both Callum Hendry and Will Collar both had the ball in the net, only for the flag to be raised, chalking them off.

Jonathan Leko made his return in the final few games of last season, but could get the cheers late in the game when he bagged a quick-fire brace at the death. His first came in the 87th minute as he rounded keeper Kamara to roll in before bending in a brilliant finish with the final kick of the game.

Referee: Richard Wharton

Attendance: 730

MK Dons: MacGillivray, Waller, Jones, Thompson, Sherring, Offord, Gilbey, Lemonheigh-Evans, Mendez-Laing, Collins, Hepburn-Murphy

Changes after 60 minutes: Trueman, Trosso, Tripp, Sanders, Tomlinson, Kelly, Collar, Thompson-Sommers, Nemane, Leko, Hendry