Late Stanley penalty denies Dons back-to-back wins

Sean McConville’s penalty 12 minutes from time denied MK Dons back-to-back wins this week as they drew 1-1 with Accrington Stanley on Saturday.

Ethan Robson’s wonderful effort on the half-hour, a top-corner effort from 25-yards, gave Dons the lead before Jack Tucker dangled a leg in front of Korede Adedoyin to take a tumble in the box, allowing McConville to dispatch the penalty to secure their third draw of the season.

While the result keeps Dons in the bottom four in League One, it marks now two games without defeat, having made a dismal start to the campaign with three defeats in a row.

After persisting with a back four all season, Liam Manning opted to revert to a back three for the visit of Accrington, using both Henry Lawrence and Daniel Oyegoke alongside Dean Lewington, Jack Tucker and Warren O'Hora, who penned a new contract with the club on Friday.

Louie Barry and Matt Smith came out of the side from Tuesday's win over Port Vale, with Oyegoke and Conor Grant coming in, while Daniel Harvie and Will Grigg returned from injury to be named on the bench.

The revised back-three looked decent enough when deployed for the second half against Vale on Tuesday, but it almost cost them a goal after just two minutes when Korede Adedoyin found himself between Tucker and Lewington and just Jamie Cumming to beat, but the keeper denied him in brilliant fashion, tipping his strike over.

While the game ebbed and flowed without much drama for the opening half-an-hour - Cumming denying an Ethan Hamilton long-range effort aside - a moment of brilliance from Ethan Robson gave the hosts the lead to kick the encounter into life. Conor Grant's ball was almost intercepted by Seamus Conneely but with Robson riding the challenge, the pitch opened up in front of him and the former Blackpool man launched an unstoppable effort from 25-yards into the top corner, leaving Lukas Jensen with no chance.

While Accrington could well have been level through Ryan Astley's header which bounced narrowly wide, Dons should have gone in at the break two goals to the good but somehow were denied twice on the line first by keeper Jensen saving Kemp's effort before Conneely threw himself in front of Matt Dennis' follow-up effort.

It would be a frustrating second half for Manning's side. Chances remained hard to come by, but after his effort was denied off the line in the first half, Dennis had another glorious opportunity to put the game to rest when he was slid in by O'Hora who had pushed forward, but Jensen was quick off his line to deny him.

Accrington played on the front foot for the majority of the half but did little to cause issue for Cumming, but when Adedoyin's quick feet saw him skip into the box, he took a tumble over Jack Tucker's leg to give referee Tom Reeves little option but to award a spot kick. Sean McConville sending the keeper the wrong to equalise with 12 minutes to go.

While there were returns for Harvie and Grigg to raise the crowd, it was the visitors who came closest to winning it in stoppage time when Hamilton's bullet effort had Cumming at full-stretch but it zipped just past the post.

Referee: Tom Reeves

Attendance: 6,001

MK Dons: Cumming, Lewington, O'Hora, Tucker, Oyegoke, Lawrence (Harvie 78), Robson, Johnson, Grant (Bary 67), Kemp (Smith 67), Dennis (Grigg 86)

Subs not used: Ravizzoli, Grigg, Devoy, Jules

Accrington Stanley: Jensen, Clark, Hamilton, Astley, Leigh, Pritchard (Whalley 65), McConville, Sangare (Tharme 65), Rodgers, Adeoyin, Conneely (Coyle 65)

Subs not used: Savin, Lowe, Longelo, Woods

Booked: Astley, Clark, Hamilton, Johnson, McConville