MK Dons start EFL Trophy campaign with heavy home loss to West Ham U21s

MK Dons were beaten 5-1 at home by the West Ham U21s in their first taste of the EFL Trophy this season.

Preston Fearon gave the visitors the lead, with the same player later doubling the away side’s lead. Laurence Maguire’s own goal then added to the Dons’ miserable first-half.

Aaron Collins scored a penalty in the second half, but a goal by Callum Marshall ended any hopes of a Dons comeback. Marshall then added a late fifth with the final shot of note just to add further misery to the Dons’ rough night.

With the Dons’ league form slipping to a run of just 1 league win in their last 5, Paul Warne’s side looked for something better in their first appearance in this season’s EFL Trophy.

Warne opted to ring the changes for a contest against West Ham’s academy side, with all 11 starters from the weekend’s draw at Chesterfield dropping out.

Inclusions in the side were Collins and Maguire after absences with injury, Jon Mellish after a suspension-induced absence and multiple academy graduates, including 3 making their first competitive starts in Simone Troso, Chase Medwynter and Kobe Sinclair-Linton.

West Ham had some early half-chances with Mohamadou Kante and George Earthy having shots blocked in the box.

The visiting academy side would then duly open the scoring in the 12th minute. Earthy, who spent last season playing for former Dons boss Liam Manning at Bristol City, ran into the box. The attacker teed it back for Fearon, whose low shot arrowed beyond the reach of home keeper Connal Trueman.

The Dons started slowly but began to offer a little more, with veteran keeper Lukasz Fabianski denying Will Collar’s half chance and then saving Chase Medwynter’s effort from outside the box.

But the Dons struggled to build momentum in search of an equaliser, and they conceded a second in the latter stages of the first half. Space opeend up for Mohamadou Kante down the West Ham left and he laid the ball in to Fearon, who scooped a low shot into the same corner he found with his first goal.

Things then got worse a few moments later when the West Ham kids scored again. Chukwuemeka Adiele’s first cross was blocked, but the West Ham man got space to try again and his second cross deflected in off Maguire to extend the West Ham side’s lead.

This gave the away side a comfortable lead at half-time and they nearly extended it when Callum Marshall was denied by Trueman when one-on-one in the opening minute of the second half.

MK Dons would have a snapshot when Collins’ drive from range was tipped away by Fabianski.

West Ham U21s then had a brief flurry of chances, with Marshall denied by Trueman and the Dons keeper making a flying stop to keep out Ryan Battrum’s goalbound strike from outside the box.

MK Dons then had a few chances of their own, with Fabianski denying Will Collar before West Ham just blocked a strike by Mellish on their own goal-line.

Fabianski then made another save to thwart Jonathan Leko, while young sub Revin Domi had a strike blocked by his own teammate Medwynter.

A foul on Collins then saw MK Dons awarded a penalty, which Collins duly converted to make it 3-1.

But any hopes of a Dons comeback lasted a matter of moments, before the visitors grabbed a fourth as Marshall turned in Adiele’s cross.

Marshall would grab his second and West Ham’s fifth right at the end of proceedings, with a slick finish from Regan Clayton’s free-kick to complete a heavy defeat for the home side.

The Dons’ attentions now turn to a league match against Accrington Stanley on Saturday, with their next dose of the EFL Trophy coming in the form of a trip to Reading in early October.

MK Dons: Trueman – Sinclair-Linton, Maguire (Domi 61), Mellish – Tripp, Collar, Lewis-Burgess (Thompson-Sommers 71), Troso (Guzynski 82) – Medwynter, Collins, Leko

Subs not used: Finch, Kelly, Singh-Hurditt, Burke

Goal: Collins (pen 67)

Booked: Lewis-Burgess, Mellish

West Ham U21 goals: Fearon (12, 39), Maguire (og 43), Marshall (71, 90+8)