A 3-1 home defeat to Leyton Orient saw MK Dons knocked out of the EFL Trophy in the group stage.

Charlie Kelman gave the visitors an early lead, before Sonny Perkins doubled the away side’s advantage.

A fine strike by Callum Hendry reduced the deficit, but MK Dons found chance creation a struggle and they were unable to find an equaliser before sub Dan Agyei put the game out of their reach in second half stoppage time.

That meant a group stage elimination for the Dons from the EFL Trophy, with the team confirmed as finishing bottom of their group after failing to win any of their three matches in 90 minutes, and as a result the loss also confirmed the exit from the last of the 3 knockout competitions MK Dons’ senior team were entered into this season.

The final game of the EFL Trophy’s group stage saw both MK Dons and Leyton Orient enter the game knowing they needed a win to maintain hopes of getting into the next stage of the competition.

With both sides having had one defeat and one penalty shootout win after a draw from their first two games of the competition’s group stage, MK Dons and Leyton Orient needed a win to overhaul one of Colchester and the Arsenal U21s, who were having their own simultaneous meeting in Essex.

MK Dons boss Scott Lindsey embraced rotation for the contest, making 11 changes from the side victorious against Swindon Town in their preceding league outing.

But the hosts would fall behind early on against a Leyton Orient team who had brushed Blackpool aside at the weekend.

The goal came through Kelman, who robbed a dallying Jack Tucker on the edge of the box, advanced and finished.

The visitors had started brighter, with Tom James seeing a strike denied by Harness just before his side opened the scoring and another opportunity go over just after the Orient goal.

Lewis Warrington then headed over at a corner as the visitors maintained their positive outlook, and they duly scored a second goal with just over 20 minutes gone.

A low pass by Kelman down the Orient right released Perkins, who beat the offside flag. From there, Perkins broke into the box, managed to force the ball past Harness after he had come off of his line and tap the ball home.

The slow start was hurting MK Dons’ hopes of progression, but they did hand themselves a way back with a strike just after the half-hour. A touch back by Ellis Harrison found Hendry, and the former Salford striker duly arced a fine strike in off the woodwork.

Things nearly got better for the Dons, as a decent moved saw the ball find Brooklyn Ilunga, who hit the side-netting.

Hendry then saw a long-range free-kick acrobatically denied by Zach Hemming in first half stoppage time.

Tommy Leigh would see a firm hit just fall wide of the mark in the opening stages of the second half, while the visitors did have the ball in the back of the net for a third time only for an offside flag to deny Jamie Donley.

A stop-start second half saw MK Dons struggle for attacking momentum, with a set-piece melee and a moment that saw both Harrison and Albert Wood have shots blocked as close as they came.

Leyton Orient then saw another disallowed goal after Kelman was ruled to have strayed offside before meeting a cross that he converted.

The hosts’ chance creation issues continued in the second half, and instead as the game entered the closing stages, it was Leyton Orient with the better chances. Dan Happe’s header from a short corner was well denied by Harness, before Agyei missed when in prime position to score from a cross from the left.

But Agyei wouldn’t be so merciful the next time, as the Orient substitute received Diallang Jaiyesimi’s pass, broke into the box and arrowed a low shot into the corner to confirm defeat for the Dons and with it the end of the road for their EFL Trophy participation.

MK Dons: Harness – Stirland, Tucker, Lewington – Wood (Brammeld 85), Pritchard, Lemonheigh-Evans, Ilunga – Hendry, Harrison, Leigh

Subs not used: Stacey, Lewis-Burgess, Silver, Sinclair-Linton, Troso, Medwynter

Goal: Hendry (31)

Booked: Hendry, Lewington, Lindsey (HC), Wood

Leyton Orient: Hemming – James, Cooper, Happe – Currie – Warrington (Pratley 67) – Perkins (O’Neil 57), Donley (Agyei 67), Obiero (Sweeney 77), Graham (Jaiyesimi 57) – Kelman

Subs not used: Phillips, Beckles

Goal: Kelman (6), Perkins (21), Agyei (90+3)

Booked: James, Happe, Obeiro, Cooper

MK Dons Head Coach Scott Lindsey was happy with his team’s recovery as they beat Swindon Town 3-1 despite falling behind after less than 20 seconds.

Harry Smith had put the visitors in front in quick time, but Kane Thompson-Sommers, MJ Williams and Alex Gilbey scored the goals to turn the game in MK Dons’ favour, delivering for the Dons a fourth straight win in League Two.

Reflecting after the game, Lindsey voice his delight that his side picked up the three points.

He said, “Obviously it was a bad start, I kind of wasn’t worried because when you concede in the first minute, obviously I’m not happy about it but I didn’t want to rant and rave about it and show a negative energy on the sideline because I think it can spill out onto the pitch. So I remained seated for a while and calm and we played so, so well in that first half.

“It’s the best we’ve played since I’ve been here. I thought we were outstanding. We rightly deserved the goal before half-time and then second half, you know, we scored some good goals but I didn’t think we played as well. I thought we could’ve controlled and dominated the ball a little bit more.

“But it’s definitely a good feeling for sure. As soon as we debriefed on Tuesday from obviously the FA Cup game, there was a line drawn really quickly and we focused that we’d just won the last 3 league games. It’s not a bad place to be at the moment so we’re alright and of course winning today has kickstarted that again.”

Lindsey said that in a paradoxical way, conceding early helped focus the team as they stayed calm and responded to the early surprise.

He said, “I think because it was so early, if you’re going to concede, concede then as crazy as it may seem. I think there was only 20 seconds on the clock and it’s madness to even think that. They punt the ball down the pitch, big Harry Smith wins the first header, they put it wide, cross it and Smith scores in 20 seconds. But we’ve got 94 minutes or whatever it was to play and I had to remain calm. I could’ve quite easily showed a negative energy, which I don’t want to do, but the players responded brilliantly.”

The three goals were of particular delight to Lindsey thanks to them coming from sources that he said the team worked on.

He said, “The pleasing thing for me is all three goals are stuff we’ve worked on. Two from corners, and the staff here work extremely hard on corners so it was two corners, and the goal where Aaron Nemane crossed it, he played it with his number 10, who was Callum Hendry I believe and Callum played it down the side. We work on that action so much so I was pleased with the goals.”

The result lifted MK Dons to a season high position of sixth in the League Two table, and Lindsey said it was showing the work the team were displaying to try and meet their goals of finishing in the promotion places at the end of the season.

He said, “Our target is to win every game and I’m not going to make any bones about it. Will we win every game? Probably not, but it’s what we want to achieve. Promotion this year – I’ve not hid behind that, that’s what we want. Will we do it? I hope so. The effort the players are putting in surely deserves to be where we are. I think I was 19th when I came into the job and now we’re 5th or 6th, so it’s great.”

Former MK Dons star Matt O’Riley marked his Premier League debut by scoring the winning goal as Brighton beat Manchester City.

The 23-year-old scored an 83rd minute winner as Brighton defeated the reigning Premier League champions 2-1 at the AMEX Stadium.

O’Riley’s goal came just 5 minutes after Joao Pedro had cancelled out Erling Haaland’s first half goal. It was also his first goal in English football since scoring on his final appearance for MK Dons, when he scored a winner against AFC Wimbledon in a League One match in January 2022.

Brighton had signed O’Riley from Celtic for an undisclosed fee of reportedly around £25million in August, with the midfielder having impressed in two and a half years at Celtic after joining the Scottish giants from MK Dons in January 2022.

However, O’Riley’s league debut had been delayed after he suffered an ankle injury that required surgery following a tackle by Crawley Town’s Jay Williams during a Carabao Cup tie between the Premier League side and the League Two outfit the day after O’Riley joined Brighton.

O’Riley’s winner helped lift Brighton to 6th in the Premier League table, where they will remain for two weeks while the top flight goes on an international break.

The Stables in Milton Keynes has inviting visual artists to submit creative works for display and sale in its newly launched foyer gallery.

The music and entertainment venue in the Wavendon area of the city will host exhibitions throughout the year, with the new gallery space hosting exhibitions in an area that replaces the old record shop area in The Stables’ main foyer.

Work on the gallery space took place during the summer to prepare the gallery, and with work now complete, the Stables now seeks artists to exhibit in their gallery space.

“We are excited by this new initiative – and hope that local artists will be too.” said Cat Moore, The Stables’ Executive Director.

“We are interested in presenting contemporary work created by artists living in and around Milton Keynes. Almost 10,000 people visit The Stables each month, so the new gallery will provide a great platform for artists to showcase their work to new audiences. We look forward to seeing what exhibition ideas come in from the local visual arts community.”

All exhibitions will be free to visit and available to view during venue opening hours.

For further information on the plans and the application process, visit www.stables.org and search for Call Out To Artists. The deadline for applications for the 2025 exhibition period is Friday 29 November.

To launch the new gallery space, The Stables will be presenting Through The Lens, a selection of photographs taken at previous editions of IF: Milton Keynes International Festival by the Festival’s official photographer Shaun Armstrong. The exhibition opens on Monday 18 November and is supported by Accura Imaging.