Stewart worth the wait after making surprise Dons debut

At long-last, Anthony Stewart lined up in MK Dons colours, and it could not have come against any one other than his former club Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

The 30-year-old signed two months ago on loan form Aberdeen, but after serving a ban on what could have been his debut against Bristol Rovers, suffered an injury in training which has ruled him out since.

His inclusion not only in the squad but in the starting line-up at Adams Park was a guarded secret - Mark Jackson sounding fairly coy on his chances of making it to south Bucks in a playing capacity, before naming him in his side at just before 2pm.

Looking like a player who had not played since January, Stewart showed slight ring-rust early on, getting out-jumped by former team-mate David Wheeler as he equalised for Wycombe on 22 minutes.

But from there, Stewart grew into the game. A magnet for Wycombe’s crosses, the defender blocked and cleared everything in his vicinity for the final hour of the game - much to the frustration for Chairboys boss, and Stewart’s former team-mate Matt Bloomfield.

“We know Anthony's qualities inside and out,” he said. “We know he defends the six-yard box well and has defensive qualities which made him such a big player for us.

“It is just unfortunate he kept arriving on time to defend those crosses towards the end.”

Jackson, finally able to hand Stewart hsi debut after a trying few months, added: “He's showed great character to come in and make his debut after that amount of time out, having signed in the transfer window and not managing to play since then.

“And to play against your old club shows a lot about him, and I thought he put in a really strong performance today.”

Another experienced head at the back

Booed by some portions of the Adams Park crowd who cheered him this time last year, Stewart showed little signs of it impacting his performance as Dons withstood Wycombe’s late pressure to take a valuable point with them back to Milton Keynes.

Goal-scorer Daniel Harvie, playing alongside Stewart for the first time, was full of praise for the Aberdeen loanee on his debut, saying his return, as well as that of captain Dean Lewington a few weeks ago, has added a calming influence in the defence.

“He was outstanding,” said Harvie. “He's been out for a long time, but he was brilliant. We were really strong at the back, he talks well, he gets the lines up and does the basics really well. I'm buzzing for him.

“We mentioned the fact he might get booed before the game, but it's all mind-games isn't it, trying to get him riled up and rattled. But he handled it really well.

“You saw it when Skip came back, it was a bit of calmness that we needed. The back four or five before Skip came back in was quite young, but when you add him and Anthony, it helps you massively.”