Stadium MK: MK Dons 0-3 Leicester City

MK Dons 0-3 Leicester City

With the return of domestic football following the World Cup in Qatar, Leicester City’s first match would be a Carabao Cup tie away to MK Dons at Stadium MK. With a place in the Quarter Finals at stake, over 6,500 City fans travelled down the M1. I (Ross) left work at 5pm and headed straight down the M1 to junction 15 before cutting across to the A5 Watling Street via the A508 and going through Old Stratford, Stony Stratford which eventually took me to an industrial estate in Denbigh just a stone’s throw from Stadium MK. I met Adrian at ASDA following a short walk through an underpass which took me under Bletcham Way straight into the car park. Adrian had been working in Oxfordshire most the day which worked well with his evening plans. With Royal Mail postal strikes causing havoc in the build up to Christmas (combined with poor admin from Leicester City who only posted them the week before), our tickets only arrived the day before the match. However, we had already contacted the ticket office at Leicester City who arranged replacement tickets for us to collect at Stadium MK. We attempted to use the original tickets first and found they wouldn’t scan when we got to the turnstiles which meant we had to go and collect our replacement tickets. The MK Dons was founded with much controversy in 2004. Up to 2007, MK Dons played at the National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes with the intention to move to a purpose built stadium. MK Dons moved to their new home, Stadium MK, ready for the 2007-08 season. The stadium initially opened with a capacity of 22,000 seats but following completion a few years later, it can now hold 30,500 spectators. The National Hockey Stadium was demolished in 2010 making way for the new headquarters for National Rail. The National Hockey team relocated to the Olympic Park in London. City strolled through this Carabao cup tie in their first competitive game back following the break for the World Cup. It became quite obvious from the start that the League One strugglers could not cope with City’s passing and movement. The Leicester dominance finally yielded a goal in 18 minutes. Thomas and Barnes combined on the left, Barnes low cross was back heeled by Vardy and although the MK Dons keeper pushed it away, Youri Tielemans was on hand to fire home. Luke Thomas was again provider for City’s second goal in 29 minutes. He found Ayoze Perez who found space in the penalty area and shot past Cummings for 2-0. The game was wrapped up just 4 minutes into the Second Half. Jamie Vardy heading home at the far post after an excellent cross from Castagne on the right. It was a good work out for Premier League Leicester City. They were not tested whatsoever and even though MK Dons are currently languishing in the League One relegation zone you would have expected a bit more fight from them. This was possibly the easiest win I have ever seen and while City stroll through to the Quarter Finals they will certainly need to up their game for the Premier League return on Boxing Day when Newcastle United arrive in town. As for the home side, they need to appoint a new manager quickly following Liam Manning’s sacking, their season will not be defined by losing to Leicester City in the League Cup but they desperately need an injection of confidence if they are to make any impression in League One. After the match, Adrian and I went our separate ways back to our respective cars and both got out the area very quickly. I decided to go back up the A5 but this time stayed on until I got to Hinckley before taking the A447 the rest of the journey which saw me get home around 11pm. A place in the Quarter Finals was to be the perfect early Christmas present to the 6,500 travelling City supporters.

MK Dons 1-0 Mansfield Town

It's been 12 years since my (Ross) last visit to Milton Keynes previously seeing a 2-1 MK Dons win against Bradford City, during their first season at their new home, Stadium MK.

The match itself had significant importance for both sides. At the start of the day, Mansfield Town were in 3rd whilst MK Dons were in 4th place with one match to go, the winner goes up and a draw sees Mansfield Town promoted to League One. Matches don't get bigger than this apart from Play Off Finals!

The Stags were expecting a big following with approximately 5,000 supporters descending down the M1 from the East Midlands. MK Dons fans were also expected to turn out in their thousands making it the biggest attendance in League Two on the day.

I left home at 11.30am making my way down the M1 alongside many Mansfield Town supporters with scarfs hanging out of car windows and one quietly nervous Notts County supporter on the way to Swindon Town where they could be relegated to fifth tier for the first time in their history.

I continued my fairly short journey southbound on the M1 until I reached junction 15A where I then took the A43 and A5 going through the market town of Towcester.

After following the A5, I was soon driving past the stadium and then parking my car on Romar Court.

With the sun beaming down, I made the leisurely walk towards the stadium. I quickly stopped to buy a sandwich from ASDA and ate outside. The atmosphere was already building around the stadium, this was a big day for both teams. I collected my ticket and continued my usual walk around the stadium. Since my last visit, the stadium has had numerous retail units built around it making it a very busy area on a match day (and makes the stadium look rather in the way!).

The MK Dons was founded with much controversy in 2004.

Up to 2007, MK Dons played at the National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes with the intention to move to a purpose built stadium. MK Dons moved to their new home, Stadium MK, ready for the 2007-08 season. The stadium initially opened with a capacity of 22,000 seats but following completion a few years later, it can now hold 30,500 spectators. The National Hockey Stadium was demolished in 2010 making way for the new headquarters for National Rail. The National Hockey team relocated to the Olympic Park in London.

Onto the match and inside the first two minutes, David Wheeler headed home a Dean Lewington corner to put MK Dons one-nil up.

Mansfield were forced to make an early substitution when defender Matt Preston picked up a head injury, very unfortunate and meant a change of plan at the back. The Stags made a second substitution within 35 minutes replacing the defensive minded Willem Tomlinson for Danny Rose who made a difference to Mansfield's attacking play. Possibly a change that should've been made at the very start...

In the second half, the Stags piled on the pressure but could not find a breakthrough. MK's Kieran Agard missing the best of several opportunities when he went through one-on-one with Town keeper Conrad Logan, who saved well. The visitors' best chances came in the way of goalmouth scrambles, with both Krystian Pearce and Danny Rose going close in the second half.

Two lengthy injury delays in the closing stages meant the home side had to hang on during almost eight minutes of added time. However, as was the case for much of the game, Mansfield struggled to create a clear-cut opening despite MK Dons understandable nerves.

I must note the veteran Russell Martin had a solid performance at the back for MK and played a vital role which saw them keep their first clean sheet since March to seal an immediate return to League One.

The hosts held firm to spark jubilant scenes at the final whistle with many of the 20,718 crowd spilling onto the Stadium MK pitch. The celebrations soon turned into trouble when Mansfield Town supporters joined them on the field of play following plenty of antagonising from the home supporters.

When the pitch was cleared, the players emerged from the tunnel to receive their medals followed by the popping of champagne.

Mansfield manager David Flitcroft must raise his players for a play-off meeting with Newport County, having occupied an automatic promotion place for much of his first full season in charge.

MK Dons 2-1 Bradford City

With Adrian already completing his 92, his priority every season is to keep his record up to date. This means visiting any new build or maybe a new club out of the conference for the first time.

So an important trip down the M1 was necessary, to a new town, new club and they have a new stadium, Milton Keynes.

Much has been written over the controversial transfer of Wimbledon FC 60 miles north to Buckinghamshire.

We will leave any comment to other web sites.

Suffice to say when Wimbledon FC first played in MK; they were using the National Hockey Stadium. Then a change of name followed in no time, followed by the planning of a new state of the art stadium.

Our journey south from Coalville started in mid-morning. Adrian picked me (Ross) up and we headed south stopping off first a Northampton where we viewed the towns sporting stadia. Northampton Town’s Sixfields, Rugby Union outfits Northampton Saints’ Franklin's Gardens and Northants CCC’s County Ground on Wantage Road. The County Ground was previously shared between football and county cricket prior to the build of Sixfields.

We then made the half hour journey down the motorway to MK. The new towns road network is based on a grid system similar to New York City and consists of many roundabouts!

We had our pre match meal at ASDA before taking a walk around the impressive yet half built Stadium MK.

The ground is situated just off the A5 at Bletchley, it is a two tiered bowl type structure, the bottom tier, in use has excellent views and padded seats, similar to the Emirates Stadium yet the 2nd tier, a shell of...Well concrete!!

Stadium MK was opened in officially opened in November 2007 by The Queen. The South stand of the ground is known as the Cowshed by Dons supporters as Milton Keynes is well known for the introduction of concrete cows. At some point, the upper tier of the ground will be completed with seating to increase the capacity from 22,000 to 30,000.

Under whatever name you care to mention the football club had been on a downward spiral for a few years and the new stadium found itself hosting League 2 football.

So a pleasant afternoon watching a neutral game and saw Milton Keynes Dons triumph 2- 1 against opponents, Bradford City. The goalscorers were Keith Andrews and Danny Swales for MK and Barry Conlon for Bradford City.

Following the final whistle we made our usual dash to the car, beating the traffic and we were on the M1 in no time.

The journey to Leicestershire was straightforward and I was home for 6.15pm.

This time a new ground visit for both of us!

Stadium MK

Monday 2 January 2023

MK Dons 0-3 Leicester City

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