Wimbledon get the better of MK Dons in grudge match
Goals from Matty Stevens and Omar Bugiel either side of half-time sealed a comfortable FA Cup first-round victory for AFC Wimbledon at MK Dons.
Bugiel set up his strike partner Stevens to drill in his eighth goal of the season at the end of a tepid first half.
The visitors started the second period strongly and doubled their lead when Bugiel lashed in from point-blank range after MK Dons had failed to clear a goalline scramble.
The home side ended the match with 10 players as former AFC Wimbledon loanee Connor Lemonheigh-Evans was shown a second yellow card with 19 minutes to go.
Despite such a unique history and much bad blood behind this fixture, the game took a while to come to the boil at Stadium MK.
Neither goalkeeper was tested in a largely forgettable opening 30 minutes before a flurry of corners from the visitors and a couple of chances for the hosts late on.
The opening goal came from a long ball forward from Owen Goodman, which was picked up and flicked beyond the defence by Bugiel for the in-form Stevens to shoot across goal and beyond Craig MacGillivray into the bottom corner with one minute of the first half remaining.
Bugiel then got on the scoresheet with his fifth goal of the season in the 51st minute.
Lemonheigh-Evans' red card made a bad afternoon for the hosts even worse, with MacGillivray producing an excellent double save to deny Bugiel his second late on.
AFC Wimbledon have now won their last three games in a row in all competitions against their League Two rivals without conceding a goal.
Omar Bugiel scored AFC Wimbledon's second goal from close range
'This fixture always has a bit extra riding on it'
MK Dons head coach Scott Lindsey said:
“We didn’t defend two moments well enough which consequently ended up killing the momentum of the game.
“The timing of the goals were terrible and the manner in which we concede is terrible. We get a man sent off with about 25 minutes to go and then the game’s out of sight.”
AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson said:
“They’re a good team and this fixture has a little bit extra always riding on it.
“So to come and play in the calm and composed manner, that’s really professional, and to get the result to match the performance, which we haven’t always been doing of late – playing well but not always coming together – for that all to come together today was incredible.
“One of the really impressive things about our performance is that we didn’t stop, even when we went 2-0 up.
“We just carried on being us and causing problems all day. To get that second one was a big goal. We took the game away from them with the second goal.”
