MK Dons picked up their first win of the new season with a 3-0 win over Carlisle United at Stadium MK.
First half goals by Callum Hendry and Alex Gilbey gave the home side the advantage before an injury time third by Joe Tomlinson secured Mike Williamson’s side their first win of the new campaign.
Success saw the Dons bounce back from three defeats in league and cup, as they popped up to 15th place in the table after the opening stages following their last game of August.
A reshuffled Dons side included a Dons debut for Laurence Maguire and a first start for his fellow summer arrival Connor Lemonhaigh-Evans, who made his debut as a substitute last week.
The opening phase of the game saw sporadic half-chances, with Carlisle seeing an opening nearly open for Daniel Adu-Adjei without yielding a shot before Aaron Hayden had a shot from range kept out by Tom McGill, while the Dons saw Lemonhaigh-Evans have a shot from range fall wide of the mark.
But with 18 minutes of the clock, space opened up and it yielded a Dons goal. Gilbey was able to thread the ball through to Aaron Nemane, who got space to run down the right flank before teeing up Hendry for a first-time shot into the bottom corner for his first Dons goal.
Tomlinson then saw a strike denied by Harry Lewis, before another Nemane cross saw a scramble at the near post as the Dons began to develop momentum.
The hosts would duly grab a second just after the half hour mark. Space opened up down the flank for Lemonhaigh-Evans, who found Nemane. The wing-back’s cross was duly in place for Gilbey, who slid in to get the ball into the Carlisle goal and had the Dons a second goal.
MK Dons came close again when Lewis denied Hendry, with Carlisle’s best chances of an immediate response seeing efforts from outside the box by Harrison Neal and Ben Barclay blocked.
The Dons were forced into a change just after the break, however, as after picking up two knocks that required treatment, Luke Offord was taken off injured.
Carlisle were then very close a way back when the ball fell kindly for Adu-Adjei, who rushed his shot when well placed and put it wide.
Adu-Adjei then saw another shot on the stretch denied by home goalkeeper Tom McGill, before the Dons’ Stephen Wearne saw a curling shot just flash past the target.
McGill then made a flying stop to deny Carlisle substitute Dominic Sadi, with the visitors also having two penalty appeals waved away.
But the visitors’ attempts at halving the deficit ran out of steam, and the Dons would duly grab a late third.
Tomlinson was picked out in space on the side of the penalty area by substitute Tommy Leigh, and the wing-back’s strike ended up creeping in to the back post, despite both Ellis Harrison and Gilbey coming close to getting a touch.
Things could’ve been worse for Carlisle, with Tomlinson and Callum Tripp both missing the target with late efforts, but the home side had done the job to get the victory.
MK Dons: McGill – Sherring, Offord (Tucker 54), Maguire – Nemane (Tripp 90), Lemonhaigh-Evans (Williams 90), Carroll, Tomlinson – Wearne (Leigh 80), Hendry (Harrison 80), Gilbey
Subs not used: Harness, Lewington, Williams, Tripp
Goal: Hendry (19), Gilbey (31)
Booked: Wearne, Nemane
Carlisle: Lewis – Davies, Williams, Hayden, Lavelle, Mellish (Ellis 73) – Vela, Barclay (Sadi 45), Neal – Wyke (Kelly 73 (Butterworth 85)), Adu-Adjei (Armstrong 67)
Subs not used: Breeze, Butterworth, Allen