V Exeter City (1-1)

Milton Keynes 1-1 Exeter City

A stoppage time leveller from Barry Corr denied MK all three points in a disappointing match. Following on from Tuesday’s defeat at Colchester there were three team changes. Mathias Doumbe was injured and Darren Powell slotted in at centre-half. Both Sam Baldock and Peter Leven started with the two Marks, Carrington and Randall dropping down to the bench.

Dons dominated the early stages and were keen to retain possession and avoid any aimless long passes. However, this yielded little in the way of goal opportunities with just a couple of corner kicks the only early danger to the Exeter net. Indeed the visitors should have taken the lead with their first serious venture into the Dons half after 18 minutes. Steve Tully’s cross from the right was headed clear by David McCracken only as far as Ryan Harley on the edge of the area. Harley’s shot rebounded off the post and when the veteran Marcus Stewart reached the loose ball first with just Willy Gueret to beat he must have thought a simple tap-in was on the cards. Clearly, Stewart had not considered the lightening reactions of Guertet was jumped back up and stuck out a foot to divert a certain goal.

That was nearly it for the first half excitement until the very last minute when an Andros Townsend corner was cleared to the edge of the box. Luke Chadwick brought the ball down and fired in a low shot which the Exeter keeper Andy Marriott was slow to get down to before finally pushing the ball around the post.

The interval saw Darren Powell unable to continue with Mark Carrington taking his place and Danny Woodards shuffling across to centre-back. With five minutes of the half played Dons edged in front with a superb Baldock strike. Townsend played the ball upto Wilbraham who laid it off to the little striker who looked to dwell too long on his shot before hitting a vicious angled drive across goal which Marriott had no hope of stopping.

With 70 minutes played Chadwick was replaced by Randall as Dons sought some fresh energy. Exeter spurned a glorious opportunity three minutes later when Liam Sercombe powered down the right and served a lovely cross up for Corr who got in ahead of David McCracken, fortunately for MK the resulting header was straight at Gueret. Paul Ince’s final substitution saw leading scorer Jermaine Easter replace Baldock for the final 15 minutes. In the last minute of normal time a long Gueret kick saw Richard Duffy have to head the ball towards his own goal to prevent the lurking Wilbraham getting there first and Marriott was forced into action to palm the ball wide. The bulk of the near 9000 crowd enjoyed that moment but there were howls of disbelief when the fourth official signalled an additional seven minutes of play.

Soon the air was heavy with anger as MK conceded in the second of the additional minutes. A City throw-in was cleared only to the edge of the area where Duffy put the ball back into the danger area and Corr got in behind Carrington to volley home. There was still time for Dons to come close to a late, late winner and Leven nearly got it only for his 96th minute effort to rise fractionally above the crossbar.

Ratings
Gueret-7 That he got the sponsor’s Man of the Match despite having only one real save to make says much for the paucity of the Dons performance
Woodards-7 Equally adept at full-back or centre-half, Can be pleased with his shift if not the result
Powell-5 Forced off at half-time through injury. Kept the passing simple whilst he was on
McCracken-6 Beaten to a header by Corr that should have proved costly, otherwise OK.
Lewington-6 The opportunity was there to really push on and support the attack but largely not taken
Chadwick-6 Seemed the most likely to create something although guilty of ball-hogging at times
Gleeson-6 Couple of misplaced passes early on drew groans from the crowd but settled well to anchor the midfield. His fourth booking in four games edges him closer to a two game suspension
Leven-6 Needed to support the strikers more, lacked the penetrating pass
Townsend-6 Majestic last week but mostly out of sorts today
Baldock-7 Has nine goals for the season and none better than today’s. Staked a valid claim for regular inclusion
Wilbraham-5 Effort cannot be faulted but he’s a centre-forward that never looks like scoring

Substitutes

Carrington-6 Was doing well until caught out by Corr for the equaliser
Randall-5 Highly-rated by Arsenal yet to see why
Easter-6 Harried the defenders although little opportunity to add to his goal tally

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