MK Dons - Home, Withdean Era
Season 12 (H) 11/9/10 - 2-0 ~ LuaLua, Murray
It was a wet afternoon at W'dean but at least we knew this time next year we would be in the dry at Falmer coz they'd just put the roof up all over four massive stands. BHA had mailed loyal supporters to sign up for their very own Heritage Stones, to be set outside the main entrance. These were actually free to those who supported the Alive & Kicking appeal of yesteryear. Nearly 6700 devoted arrived at W'dean to see this L1 fixture and possibly three times that number would assemble in a further twelve months. We prayed to God for promotion to the Championship and for Gus Poyet's latest international squad to hit the big time this season.
The first half was cat and mouse, a game of 22 piece chess and a jigsaw puzzle to boot. GP went 442 with loan signing LuaLua rushing down left flank but Bennett in more of a free role behind strikers. No goals were scored before coffee break. Rain was still falling when LuaLua opened the scoring via a short f-k to tee him up down range. His thunderbolt beat the keeper for pace and was a fantastic shot on target (49min). Albion began to take hold of this contest and it came as no surprise to see LuaLua make the second for Murray. All he had to do was get his nut on it by the back stick (75m). GP had replaced Sparrow on the hour due to a yellow card, Dicker acting as a reliable replacement. Smith came on near the end, allowing MoM LuaLua to receive a standing ovation from delighted Brighton fans. It was his first and we hoped not last, senior goal and wuz a real cracker to put Albion on the road to chase early season pacemakers. So far so good and the old place didn't seem too bad after all.
Ankergren, Calderon, Elphick, El-Abd, Painter, Bennett, Kishishev (Bridcutt), Sparrow (Dicker), LuaLua (Smith), Barnes, Murray.
League1 P 5 . W 3 D 1 L 1 . F 8 A 5 . Pt 10 Po 7

Season 11 (H) 3/10/09 - 0-1
The weather had changed from a dry, warm, Indian summer to strictly autumnal. A cool wind blew around Withdean and it wasn't just the weather under cloudy skies. B'ton had real probs producing half decent home form and Slade was doing his head in trying to find a winning formula. Nearly 6500 attended to witness this next fixture in decline and possible fall of Slade, his hand picked BHA squad and hopefully their out of sell-by coaches. Did that sound a tad harsh? Well somet was wrong in the system and stats showed and proved fatal flaws in '9/10 strategy and results. We were supposed to be top-ten not bottom four!
Discipline let B'ton down yet again as El-Abd got sent off (26m) for studs up less than half an hour in. He joined a growing list including Kuipers, Elphick, Hawkins and Virgo. All defenders of a sort and it mucked up Slade's chance to get a settled back four. Anyway it was nil-nil at h-t and Albion were up against it to get much from the match. Into the second period, Dons hit us at a corner (49m) and we didn't know if we'd been punched or bored. Seagulls huffed and puffed but couldn't find a way back into the contest. Murray returned from injury and appeared lively. Bennett was emergency full-back and done good in trying circumstances. His crosses were better from a deeper position for a kick off. Slade went to bed with a bottle - but of what?
Kuipers, El-Abd, Elphick, Tunnicliffe, Wright, Bennett, Crofts, Dicker (Thornhill), Davies (Murray), Forster, Dickinson.
League1 P 10 . W 2 D 3 L 5 . F 10 A 18 . Pt 9 Po 21

Season 10 (H) 12/12/08 - 2-4 ~ Johnson, Fleetwood
Dons had literally come a long way since days of yore in London boroughs. They'd got a useful run going in League1 and were fancied for promotion. On the other hand, Brighton were well short of expectations and struggling to make a positive impact during their third year at tier three. Our previous home sequence was ddllddwwl, so it wasn't exactly fortress Withdean as in glory days of Adams first eleven versus div3. He'd faced facts about level of ability needed to get out of this league and found, his ex-Champ's signings and on-loan make-weights weren't bettering Wilkins boy wonders of recent seasons. He was trying to establish a settled side but chopped and changed as results didn't come up to par. To add more misery, Kuipers broke a hand in training this week. It was a cold but mercifully dry Friday evening after a frosty spell. The last thing we wanted was for flood-gates to open during our pre-Xmas bash. It was muddy at Falmer because bulldozers had dug up a bloody great field of soil prior to excavation of chalk.
Inside 3 minutes, Murray took a fast free-kick to set Johnson free and he lobbed Dons keeper. MKD hit back (26m) when converting a corner with an easy header. They also hit a post and fortunately Sullivan gathered. From the re-start (46m) Dons went on the attack and netted from a fancy dribble. They went further ahead (69m) when Elphick blundered a clearance in defence. Adams had introduced subs around the hour mark and Fleetwood got one back (88m) as the clock wound down. Milton men were still very much eleven keens and snatched a fourth in injury time. Albion were beaten by a better side but were victims of a rank bad rearguard and a piss poor spearhead. Ref was a fussy beggar and booked a few from a couple of punch-ups to boot. Although we'd only got ourselves to blame for a fourth defeat in five and no wins. At the end of Saturday, BHA was still a point off the bottom four where three strugglers gained ground. Micky Adams remained positive, er, Dick Knight was hardly gonna replace him bearing in mind those cloak and dagger antics last May.
Sullivan, Whing, Elphick, Hawkins, Richards, Thomson, El-Abd (Thornton), Johnson, Cox (Anyinsah), Murray (Fleetwood), Forster.
League1 P 20 . W 4 D 8 L 8 . F 24 A 31 . Pt 20 Po 20

Season 8 (H) 1/11/06 JPT2 - 4-1 ~ Revell 2, Cox, Hammond
Milton Keynes had 'inherited' the Championship side Wimbledon, when they left S London in 2003 (see '06/7 pre-match reports archive for detail). A first meeting of these sides happened to be in the Johnstone's Paints Trophy round 2, where Albion easily disposed of their (now) League 2 opponents. In fact the fluid nature of a series of attacking moves produced over twenty on/off target attempts. The crowd was 2774, which had increased by 1000 from round 1 at Withdean. It was a cold but clear night for knock-out football played on an excellent Withdean pitch.
With new sponsors taking over from LDV Vans in this lower leagues competition, there was to be no extra time but in the event of a draw, go straight to penalties. A majority of 'first eleven' players had to take to the field but Dons started a lightweight unit and quickly subbed a couple to boot. It therefore came as something of a surprise that they bagged a late consolation.
Cox put B'ton ahead inside 15 min with a shot in the area from a training ground f-k routine. Revell nutted in a mis-hit shot to virtually win this tie by the break. He scored again in a flurry of late goals with a cracking drive. Hammond made it four, side-footing home after more good flank work. Albion had made it to the southern section quarter finals.
Henderson, Whing, Hinshelwood, Butters, Mayo (Lynch), Fraser (Bowditch), El-Abd, Hammond, Cox, Revell (Gatting), Robinson.

MK Dons - Away, Withdean Era
Season 12 (A) 26/2/11 - 0-1
It was only our third league1 visit to Milton Keynes but a lot had changed in a couple of years. Falmer had become that truly iconic Amex stad and Gus Poyet was a legend in his own four year contract. Season ticket holders at Withdean formed an orderly queue for seats at our brand new community arena for '11/12 and were happy with good Albion form in this current campaign. El-Abd, Painter, Bennett and Dicker were regular first-eleven selections from '9/10 run-in group, while Brezovan, Elphick, Dunk, Hart and Holroyd were also in our present L1 squad. Navarro was recovering from serious injury and Murray seemed to have fully gotten over many niggles suffered from previous seasons. All the team had to do was regularly pick up points on this familiar third-tier road to secure a bright Championship future. Around 2000 fans travelled in wet conditions but it was dry for the game.
Albion were off colour under grey skies in a half filled stadium. We went behind in the first half when couldn't clear from a crowded area. Dons notched an effort that rebounded off the post (27min). On 67min they had a guy sent off for a second bookable but held out for victory. Gus put Sandaza into play for Barnes early second period. Later he brought off both wingbacks in a vain attempt to get something from this messy contest. We pounded Dons in frantic closing stages from any number of crosses but they kept it clean. Brighton fans were subdued and home mob very happy, even though Ref upset them a lot. Our away form wasn't brilliant and we needed to respond positively and up the ante in order to seriously go for the league1 title by May.
Ankergren, Calderon (Sparrow), Greer, El-Abd, Painter (Taricco), Bennett, Bridcutt, Dicker, Wood, Barnes (Sandaza), Murray
League1 P 30 . W 17 D 8 L 5 . F 56 A 24 . Pt 59 Po 1

Season 11 (A) 1/5/10 - 0-0
This was the last away fixture of a serially mixed season to say the least. Up until the run-in, home and away form had been reversals of what is normally expected in any division. It was bizzare in the extreme, when so many points were gained on travels to keep us clear of d-z places via Withdean debacles. But winter became spring again and Russ Slade's autumn departure was almost forgotten a year on at MK stadium. Tony Bloom readily reacted to underachieving and Gus Poyet came in with a plan to get us fit for Falmer by 2011. Yes, we too were gonna have a pukka arena soon and were watching it steadily being built when passing by on the busy A27. Over 1800 B'fans went along to witness a mid table contest where people played for pride, rather than vital points.
It ended goal-less and probably won't be remembered next week, let alone in another years time. But one kid would definitely never forget this match as long as he lived. Youngster Lewis Dunk was awarded a pro contract and also selected for his first team central defence debut. That was one helluva responsibility but the boy done good. From youth team, via reserves and straight into the squad all in one week - that's fast track for sure. The other talking point was dismissal of Uruguayan, Diego Arismendi after Ref blew for half time. Apparently the 2mill euros on-loan holding m-f man from Stoke, got involved in handbags and saw red before coffee time. Gus watched the video and considered appealing. B'fans would have been happy just to see a goal scored. One more fixture and this campaign would be over, bar the BHA disciplinary record under scrutiny at FL HQ. It didn't exactly make for a fun read either.
Brezovan, Hoyte, Dunk, Elphick, El-Abd (Painter), Bennett, Crofts, Arismendi, Hendrie (Dicker), Carole (Navarro), Holroyd
League1 P 45 . W 14 D 14 L 17 . F 55 A 60 . Pt 56 Po 13

Season 10 (A) 4/4/09 - 0-2
Milton Keynes had a lovely super-duper stadium to go see and would be an addition to any travelling fans scrap books. From afar it was kinda like recent stads at Leicester or Coventry, less some exterior overhead steelwork. Falmer was over the horizon, so this was a good exercise to get the feel of all mod cons. Apart from sightseeing, there remained a deep feeling of fear of relegation because Brighton went to stad:mk in 22nd place. A massive injury crisis gave Slade plenty to think about with selection, although he didn't have to go thru many listed names. Forster and Murray were crocked but we couldn't just blame everything on their exclusion - we'd supposed to have a big squad! It was really warm and sunny on the day and over 2000 B'fans attended.
To cut a long and painful story short, we were done by half time. Dons opened their account (29 min) from a 1on1 with FDM. Albion had held the home outfit until then but allowed a gap thru. Just before the break (40m) Dons won it with a free header. Brighton did not do well after h-t and laboured up front. Fans got on strikers backs but there were no forward subs on the bench to help. Slade made his changes after hour but knew from prior to coffee-time we'd get nowt from this one-sided contest. Dons strolled to an easy win. BHA has excuses for those selections below but not many for lack of devotion to the cause. It was a frustrating and annoying afternoon, in warm weather only 100 odd miles from home. But we were still left out in the cold and a million miles from safety and staying in League1.
Kuipers, Whing, Virgo, Heath (Cook), El-Abd, Loft (Carole), Fraser (Jarrett), Dicker, Cox, Davies, Owusu.
League1 P 39 . W 8 D 12 L 19 . F 42 A 62 . Pt 36 Po 22

No previous meetings in the Withdean era.