Subs rescue a point for ten-man MK Dons in draw with Tranmere Rovers

Ten-man MK Dons came from 2-0 down against Tranmere Rovers to rescue a point in a thrilling 2-2 draw at Prenton Park.

Trailing to Charlie Whitaker’s first-half brace, substitutes Jon Mellish and Kane Thompson-Sommers drew Paul Warne’s side level, either side of Jonathan Leko’s red card in a four-minute spell which completely turned the game on its head.

The result sees Dons drop a place to fourth in the table.

In a shock shake-up to the side, Jonathan Leko was handed his first start in nearly seven months after injury and suspension ravaged Dons’ attack-line. With Callum Paterson suspended for the game after picking up his fifth booking last week against Salford City, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing were sidelined through injury, leaving the visitors desperately short of numbers up front. Dan Crowley and Will Collar also came into the starting line-up, while there were positive signs as both Gethin Jones and Aaron Collins were named on the bench after several months out.

After a poor performance in the 2-0 win over Salford City last Saturday, Dons were looking to make a better fist of things while replicating the results, but while they did look an improved outfit in the first-half, saw themselves trailing by the same scoreline at the interval.

Charlie Whitaker twice managed to breach Dons’ offside-trap, the first after nine minutes when Marvin Ekpiteta’s poor touch gifted the ball to Joe Ironside 22 yards out, who in turn slid in his team-mate to beat Craig MacGillivray.

His second came in similar fashion, played in over the top and with two men in support, the former Notts County man lifted the ball over the top of the keeper to double the advantage.

It was a case of nearly-but-not-quite for the visitors, with their attacking play looking incisive until the final ball, with Will Collar and Joe Tomlinson getting half-sights of goal but nothing to really test veteran keeper Joe Murphy.

Leko’s first league start since April was on the brink of ending barely having starting as he picked up an early booking and was then given a final warning by referee Richie Watkins, leaving him to toe the line for the rest of the game.

The second-half saw Dons looking far more in control that in the opening 45 minutes, and while Murphy kept his powder dry, the efforts were edging gradually closer, with Liam Kelly chancing his arm on a couple of occasions.

The reintroductions of Aaron Collins and Gethin Jones on the hour mark breathed life into the visitors, but it was the other change, that of Jon Mellish which kicked off a wild four-minute spell which would see Dons salvage a point.

With 12 minutes to go, Mellish brought down Kelly’s half-cleared corner on the edge of the box, rasping home a fierce left-footed volley to draw one back for the visitors.

Rovers skipper Smith, who lulled Leko into his third minute booking, would then do the same barely a minute after the goal to earn the ex-Birmingham City man a red card and reduce Dons to ten.

Two minutes later though the comeback would be complete when another substitute in the form of Kane Thompson-Sommers classily equalised from the edge of the box to rescue a point for Dons.

Referee: Richie Watkins

Attendance:

Tranmere Rovers: Murphy, Norman, Brough, Smith, Whitaker (Davison 73), Finley (Smallwood 60), Patrick, Joseph, Blacker (Dennis 87), Ironside (Jennings 60), McGowan (Kenneh 61)

Subs not used: Barratt, Harris

MK Dons: MacGillivray, Ekpiteta (Thompson-Sommers 75), Offord, Sanders, Tomlinson (Mellish 61), Nemane (Jones 61), Kelly, Crowley (Maguire 90), Collar (Collins 62), Gilbey, Leko

Subs not used: Trueman, Tripp

Booked: Leko, Finley, Joseph, Mellish

Sent off: Leko