MK Dons continue bright form by seeing off Fleetwood Town

MK Dons continued bright form in League Two as they managed a 2-1 home win over Fleetwood Town.

A first half goal by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and second half strike from Aaron Nemane did the business for Paul Warne’s side.

While Ched Evans scored a goal back for the visitors, it was the Dons who took the points, with the home side now on a run of just one defeat in their previous nine League Two outings.

The points were enough to temporarily lift MK Dons to top spot in the League Two table, though they would slip to third after Walsall and Swindon won matches played after the Dons’ early kick-off finished.

On a cold winter’s day in Milton Keynes, the Dons arrived seeking a fourth straight home win in league outings. Making their way to Stadium MK were Fleetwood, who arrived in bright form themselves after a run of 1 defeat in their prior 6 outings, which was enough to see them enter the conversation in the hunt for a play-off place.

After an initial slow start, MK Dons began to see more of the ball going forward, with Joe Tomlinson seeing a strike deflected wide in the early phase of the contest.

Tomlinson, Alex Gilbey and Kane Thompson-Sommers would all see strikes blocked as the Dons made attempts to seek an early way through.

A counter nearly opened the door for the Dons, with a through-pass from a Fleetwood corner releasing Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, but under pressure from Kayden Hughes, he could only strike straight at away keeper Jay Lynch.

Fleetwood’s Liam McCann had a strike held by Craig MacGillivray, while the Dons still maintained a threat as Callum Paterson hit a strike into the side-netting.

In the final ten minutes of the first half, the Dons would take the lead after winning a penalty. Lynch’s challenge on Joe Tomlinson was penalised, and from the spot, Mendez-Laing thrashed the ball into the back of the net. The strike meant back-to-back penalty goals for the winger, who’d scored from the spot against Salford two weeks ago in his previous appearance.

The Dons began the second half in search of more goals, but couldn’t quite make that breakthrough, with Paterson narrowly unable to connect with Nemane’s cross in one near-miss.

MacGillivray made a straight-forward save to keep out Mark Helm, with the same man later seeing a strike blocked as Fleetwood pushed in search of an equaliser.

Matty Virtue would also see a strike kept out by a straightforward MacGillivray intervention as the visitors tried to find a way back, but with 22 minutes to play, MK Dons would grab a second.

Mendez-Laing’s cross was a dangerous one that Paterson launched himself at, with the former Sheffield Wednesday man getting a possible touch as the header clipped the post. But the loose ball fell kindly for Nemane, who duly lashed a strike into the roof of the net.

Just when it seemed like the path was opening up for the Dons to take a comfortable win, however, Fleetwood would grab a goal back, with Evans’ first touch after coming on as a substitute seeing him receive fellow sub Ryan Graydon’s pass and firing a strike into the bottom corner.

In the immediate aftermath, MK Dons went on the attack. Paterson had a header deflected wide at a corner, Lynch denied Gilbey’s strike from a tight angle and Joe Tomlinson fired wide after Gilbey’s miskick from sub Aaron Collins’ cross.

Despite there being 7 minutes of added time, MK Dons proved capable of keeping Fleetwood’s attack from troubling MacGillivray, with the hosts even seeing one more chance come and go as Lynch denied Collins.

But while they weren’t able to extend their advantage, MK Dons got the victory that lifts them back into the automatic promotion places ahead of the league’s pause next weekend for the FA Cup.

MK Dons: MacGillivray – Offord, Ekpiteta, Sanders – Nemane (Jones 70), Kelly, Thompson-Sommers (Collar 85), Gilbey, Tomlinson (Mellish 82) – Mendez-Laing (Collins 70), Paterson

Subs not used: Trueman, Maguire, Tripp

Goal: Mendez-Laing (pen 37), Nemane (68)

Booked: Ekpiteta, Mendez-Laing

Fleetwood: Lynch – Hughes, Holgate, Mullarkey – Ennis (Medley 60) , Virtue (Bonds 70), Neal, Helm, McCann – Davies (Evans 70), Coughlan (Graydon 60)

Subs not used: Harrington, Potter, Morrison

Goal: Evans (72)