MK Dons 2 City 2
Leicester City played at the new Stadium MK for the first time on Saturday. It is a very impressive ground based on Benfica’s Stadium of Light in Portugal, with its open concourse dividing upper and lower tiers of seating. Both the visitors and MK Dons had occupied the top two positions in League One for a number of weeks now and were favourites before kick-off for automatic promotion back to the Championship.
The Foxes were defending their 20 game unbeaten run and had beaten the Dons in the opening game of the season at the Walkers by the score of 2 – 0. Some 3.5 thousand fans followed the visitors; making Leicester the second best away supported team in the division after Leeds. For MK this was a season’s best crowd of 17,800.
Leicester replaced the suspended Hobbs with Brown and moved Burner to mid field to add bite, relegating Cleverly to the substitutes’ bench.
On the day Leicester were fortunate to get a 2-2 draw. Their equaliser from a direct free kick on the left of the penalty box came from Max Gradel, a second half substitute after a foul on Matty Fryatt who was consistently impressive throughout.
The goal came five minutes into injury time and home supporters would have felt it was not a fair reflection of the balance of play. In fairness, Leicester were only as good as MK Dons allowed them to be and by consent of the local supporters this was the home team’s best performance of the season…..
After the first quarter of the game MK largely dominated through a combination of the power of Leven and Navarro in midfield. The wingers were effective at stretching the play and Johnson’s pace in particular gave Leicester’s right back, Gilbert, an uncomfortable afternoon. For Leicester, Morrison and Brown struggled against the home team’s direct style.
This was though, for the spectator, an exciting game. Leicester started quickly with Howard and Fryatt an immediate threat. Fryatt scored after four minutes when his close control from the inside right position in the penalty area enabled him to pass the ball across Gueret into the Dons goal.
MK responded energetically and with both wingers prominent, particularly Chadwick, an ex Manchester United player, they continued to threaten. It was no surprise when Leven drove sweetly low into the left hand corner from 22 yards on 35 minutes to equalise the scores.
The Foxes would have been glad of the half time interval as they were in danger of being overrun before the break. A very good goal line clearance from Oakley typified Leicester’s difficult first half.
MK Dons carried on in the second half where they had left off before the break. Leven scored his second goal of the game after 62 minutes after a wonderful move that involved three dummies across the penalty area coming in from the left. He was fortunate however that Bunn, who had saved well at his feet, saw the deflection hit the mid fielder and go into the net as he followed through.
Both sides made a flurry of substitutions as they sought to secure or save the game. Howard and Johnson were both booked for late tackles.
MK Dons were good today. Leicester scrapped hard although over run in periods – they showed a potential champion’s resilience and perhaps made their own luck. This was a very good game of attacking football, with 24 shots on target from both teams (40 in total) throughout the game. It was well refereed with a very good atmosphere in the ground.
Milton Keynes Dons: Gueret, Regan, Llera (Belson 90), O'Hanlon, Lewington, Puncheon (Baldock 90), Chadwick (Stirling 72), Leven, Navarro, Johnson, Wilbraham. Subs Not Used: Abbey, Gerba.
Booked: Johnson. Goals: Leven 36, 63.
Leicester: Bunn, Gilbert, Morrison, Brown (Powell 85), Mattock (Gradel 78), Oakley, Andy King, Berner, Dyer (Cleverley 60), Howard, Fryatt. Subs Not Used: Pentney, Dickov.
Booked: Howard. Goals: Fryatt 5, Gradel 90.
Gradel goal (picture courtesy of LCFC)
Att: 17,717 Ref: Andy Penn (W Midlands).
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation