Late equaliser sees MK Dons swipe point on trip to Cambridge

A 96th minute penalty helped MK Dons take a point after a 1-1 draw with fellow automatic promotion contenders Cambridge United.

Shayne Lavery had put the U’s in front and it looked as though the Dons were set to slip up in their meeting with the side who’d begun the day directly above them in the table.

But substitute Aaron Collins scored a late penalty to salvage a point for Paul Warne’s side, which had the effect of keeping them in the automatic promotion places after Swindon and Notts County also failed to win.

The point from the trip to the Abbey Stadium sees MK Dons remain 3rd in the League Two table with 12 games of the season to go.

The game saw the sides sat second and third at the start of the weekend face off, with both hoping for a win to try and keep up with leaders Bromley.

Much of the contest would be a tight affair with little to split the two teams, although the two best chances of the first half came for the visitors.

Jon Mellish saw a snapshot kept out by home keeper Jake Eastwood, before Rushian Hepburn-Murphy contrived to miss the target when played through and one-on-one with Eastwood.

Cambridge came close in the opening minutes of the second half when a cross picked out James Gibbons, whose header forced a good save out of Craig MacGillivray.

The hosts looked likelier to open the scoring for a while after that but neither side’s attack seemed to be operating at top speed with chances at a premium.

With just over 15 minutes of the 90 to go, however, Cambridge broke through. A through pass teed up Ben Knight, whose thumping effort was kept out by MacGillivray. Elliott Nevitt then had a follow-up blocked by one of two MK Dons defenders who both made sliding blocks, but the ball ricocheted for Lavery to rifle it home and put the home side in front.

MK Dons pressed in reply, with substitute Joe Tomlinson somehow failing to convert from close range before Curtis Nelson had a strike denied by Eastwood.

But in stoppage time, MK Dons would be presented with a chance to find an equaliser, as Aaron Nemane was brought down by Cambridge’s Sean Raggett in the box, and a penalty was awarded.

Up stepped Collins, who got the goal to bring the Dons back on level terms.

With little time after that to play with, it was the Dons who would duly take the points, and in the process continues an unbeaten run that stretches back to New Year’s Day.

Paul Warne’s side will now turn their attentions to a home assignment next weekend, when they take on struggling Harrogate at Stadium MK.