Luton Town’s bid to stay in the Championship suffered a blow as they lost 1-0 at home to a ten man Blackburn Rovers side.
Midtable Rovers had arrived with no win in their previous 8 outings, but a Yuki Ohashi goal won the game for the visitors. Blackburn had seen Kristi Montgomery sent off, but the visitors kept Luton out for the remaining half hour and took the points.
Defeat ended Luton’s five match unbeaten run, and they sit three points from safety with four games of the Championship season still to play.
Having rescued a late point against fellow strugglers Stoke in midweek, Luton had hoped to keep their unbeaten streak going against an out-of-sorts Blackburn side. The visitors’ run of games without a win had sunk their hopes of a finish in the play-offs, with Rovers having recently lost to several teams down the Hatters at the bottom end of the Championship table.
Luton had a few first half opportunities, with Millenic Alli missing the target from close range in the opening minute and Mark McGuinness heading over from a Jordan Clark free-kick.
Blackburn had created little but the visitors would take the lead in the opening stages of the second half. A passing move in the middle teed up Ryan Hedges, who played a fine pass through to Ohashi, and the Japanese striker was able to roll the ball past Thomas Kaminski to put the visitors in front.
Six minutes after taking the lead, Blackburn would be reduced to ten players. Full debutant Montgomery had already been booked when the Blackburn defender was shown another yellow for a foul on Alli and was duly shown a red card.
Blackburn duly provided a stubborn obstacle to try and get the points despite the issue of being a man down.
The Hatters’ best opportunities saw them twice hit the crossbar, with Thelo Aasgaard hitting the bar after a fine slaloming run before Alli saw a deflected shot strike the bar in the ninth minute of second half injury time.
Try as they might, however, Luton couldn’t break the door down as they slip to a reverse that does damage to their aspirations of survival.
The Hatters face a huge contest in their next game, when they travel to play Derby County in a relegation six pointer against the side that currently sit immediately outside the relegation zone.
MK Dons lost for the fourth game in a row after a 1-0 defeat at Gillingham courtesy of a late Bradley Dack goal.
Dack’s goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time, earning the home side a first win under the charge of recently appointed boss Gareth Ainsworth.
The result continued the Dons’ miserable run, with the team having failed to win any of their last five outings and suffered defeats in their last four as their season continues to drift away.
With four games to go, the Dons sit 19th in the League Two table, with the team having a nine point gap to the relegation zone after Carlisle won a battle of the bottom two away at Morecambe.
After a chastening week for MK Dons where they conceded ten goals in defeats to Fleetwood, Notts County and Barrow, the club remained in the interim charge of Ben Gladwin, who would later reveal the club expect to appoint a new manager before next week’s game against Newport.
A flat first half saw neither one of Gillingham’s first-time starter goalkeeper Taite Hotlman or recalled MK Dons keeper Craig MacGillivray tested, with the closest seeing MacGillivray make straight-forward stops to deny Robbie McKenzie and Sam Gale.
MK Dons did have the ball in the back of the net when Scott Hogan raced onto a through-pass and threaded a shot into the bottom corner, only for an offside flag to intervene.
Joe Tomlinson had a shot blocked and Alex Gilbey fired over in first half stoppage time as MK Dons ended the half with a few opportunities.
A low quality first half was followed by a similarly unimpressive second period, with neither side creating much in the way of opportunities.
Gillingham nearly broke the deadlock in the latter stages when substitute Dack met a free-kick and saw a glancing header strike the bar.
It had looked like the game was set to drift to a scoreless conclusion until, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Gillingham snatched the points. A free-kick was headed back across goal by Conor Masterson for Dack, who controlled then bundled it between Luke Offord and the post to find the back of the net.
Milton Keynes City Council and Santander UK have announced plans for a year-long engagement exercise with local residents to understand the challenges they face in improving energy efficiency in their homes.
The partnership will see MK City Council and Santander will work together to survey 500 Milton Keynes residents to identify the barriers they’re facing to improving the energy efficiency of their homes.
The two will then join forces to create a citizen’s panel to understand what can be done to make the homes in Milton Keynes warmer and more efficient.
MK City Council said in their statement, “New research from Santander UK highlights growing public interest in energy efficiency, with 52% of UK residents now considering it a top priority, up from 37% in 2023.
“However, Santander’s latest ‘Tomorrow’s Homes’ report also identifies key barriers preventing people from making improvements— with the upfront cost being the main concern. Delving deeper into these hurdles for the local Milton Keynes population – in the first survey of its kind – will be used by MK City Council to shape future sustainability initiatives and support the development of a local retrofitting ecosystem, as well as understanding climate resilience needs. This builds on work the City Council already has underway, including its partnership with MK Community Energy who provide advice for residents.”
The collaboration would see the City Council work with the Spanish-based multinational bank, whose UK headquarters is based in Central Milton Keynes.
Cabinet Member for Planning and Placemaking, Cllr Shanika Mahendran, said, “We know that many people want to make their homes energy-efficient but face financial and practical barriers. By working with Santander, we can better understand these challenges and create real solutions that support local people, to build on and improve existing practical support we offer.
“We’re working to make Milton Keynes a world-leading sustainable city and it’s partnerships like these that help us achieve our goals and ensure our city continues to go from strength to strength.”
Fiona Hyde, Head of Sustainability, Santander, added, “Our research shows that despite the desire to reduce their impact on the environment, UK residents are facing real barriers to acting and improving their homes’ energy efficiency. We designed our own building in Milton Keynes, Unity Place, with sustainability at its heart and we’re now looking forward to working with the local council to unpick the struggles faced by residents, and work to find specific ways to address them to support our neighbours.”
The research project funded by Santander connects the two organisations and supports MK City Council’s wider ambitions to create a more sustainable city.
Santander officially opened Unity Place, its Head Office in Milton Keynes in September 2023, a BREEAM accredited building which incorporates air-sourced heat pumps and solar panels, reducing grid consumption. Since opening, the bank has also introduced a number of sustainable catering partners to minimise waste, and found ways to maximise the resources available, for example through collecting rooftop rainwater to use as wastewater throughout the building.
Destination Milton Keynes’ #LoveMK day is set to return for 2025.
The event will continue an event first set up by MK’s official tourism group Destination Milton Keynes (DMK) 13 years ago which seeks to highlight positive qualities of the city on social media.
DMK’s Marketing Manager Carys Underwood said, “Over the years Milton Keynes has been much maligned by the press and mainly by people who have never been here, and who just don’t get it. This wacky little idea was a way of letting everyone who values the things that make MK special – like the green spaces, roundabouts and grid roads – shout about them and be rightly proud.”
Across the years, so many people have been involved, including Mayors, celebrities, schools, businesses, sports teams and community groups, and loads of ordinary people just wanting to help share the love.
The main hook has been the use of the hashtag. When it started, the aim was to get #LoveMK trending on Twitter (now X) but people soon began to use the hashtag as part of creative challenges for people. There have been pizzas with the hashtag on, cakes, flowerbeds, pies, Lego and it even made it into a Minecraft world. The more creative you could be the better, and back in 2013 it was even cut into a lawn.
It’s estimated that across the thirteen years the hashtag reach is in excess of 35 million, with it being used over 100,000 times.
DMK said the theme was for the hashtag to be a strong presence from local users.
They said, “This year, DMK wants everyone to get involved. Use #LoveMK on all your posts, and get creative with that hashtag – paint it, sew it, bake it, make it out of flowers, you name it – they want to see it!”
Carys Underwood continued “After more than a decade of #LoveMK Day, the support shown for the day still surprises us; everyone wants to get involved and you can at any level. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, just use the hashtag when you post on socials that day… but if you want to bring out your creative side and post a photo, that would be amazing or if your business wanted to create a special offer just for that day, then we’ll help get it out there – just get involved and help spread the #LoveMK.”
The Casino MK at XScape in Central Milton Keynes has been closed after their parent company entered administration.
Casino operating firm Aspers Group Limited entered administration earlier this week, with the company calling in administrators to oversee a potential sale of sites including the one in Milton Keynes.
The Casino MK had previously put an update on social media earlier this week confirming the closure of the location.
In a brief statement, they said, “We’re sorry but The Casino MK is currently closed. Please check back here for more information about reopening in due course.”
A further statement reposted on the Casino MK’s website then confirmed the closure while a potential transaction is pursued.
The statement read, “Andrew James Johnson, Matthew Boyd Callaghan and Shamil Malde of FTI Consulting LLP (“FTI”) have been appointed as joint administrators (“Administrators”) of Aspers UK Holdings Limited – in administration, and certain subsidiaries as listed at Schedule 1 (collectively, the “Companies” or “Aspers”) on 8 April 2025.
“Trading operations at Aspers (Milton Keynes) Limited have been suspended while the Administrators pursue a potential transaction. Further updates will be provided in due course.
“If you would like to speak to the Administrators’ staff, you can do so by contacting [email protected].”
First opened in September 2013, The Casino MK featured a wide assortment of games including poker, roulette and slot machines, as well as live music, a bar and restaurants.
It is as yet unclear how long the process that would see the casino re-opened under a new operator will take place.
Aspers had previously operated a casino in nearby Northampton, which was sold in 2024 and has since been taken over by rival casino brand Grosvenor.
