Watford 0-2 MK Dons: Matthew Dennis & Darragh Burns goals shock Hornets
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Darragh Burns' goal was his first since joining MK Dons this summer
League One MK Dons pulled off a Carabao Cup shock with a 2-0 victory over Championship Watford at Vicarage Road.
Goals either side of half-time from Matthew Dennis and Darragh Burns were enough to book their third round place for the first time in three seasons.
Dennis opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time, turning in a ball from Burns after a one-two between the pair.
Burns got himself onto the scoresheet 10 minutes into the second half, drilling in an effort from 25 yards.
Both teams made wholesale changes from their league games at the weekend, with Watford bringing in six players and MK Dons showing seven changes.
Liam Manning's visitors made light of an indifferent start to the season with a comfortable and composed performance against a Watford side who sit second in the Championship.
Watford were lethargic for large parts of the game, failing to produce any chances of note until the final 15 minutes.
The Hornets have now been knocked out of the competition by lower league opposition in each of the last three seasons.
Watford manager Rob Edwards told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"I want to give credit to MK Dons, I thought they fully deserved the win, but it's a disappointing evening.
"I selected a team that I thought would be capable of winning the game and I feel like it's an opportunity missed.
"I think we could have taken more risks in our play to ask them a few more questions, but we didn't speed the game up enough.
"We couldn't quite get a rhythm tonight and when you're not good enough with or without the ball it's not a good recipe."
MK Dons manager Liam Manning told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"I'm really proud of the lads tonight especially with the discipline, focus, intensity and emotional control which is something we challenged them with.
"We knew we were going to be up against it with how senior and experienced their team was and the quality they have.
"We played to our style and I thought there were some terrific moments of football, if you look at it in chances we probably created the best quality chances.
"It's now a case of consistently trying to achieve this level performance as we know that is something this group is capable of."