MK Dons 4, Crawley Town 1: Reds' Jersey Mikes Trophy journey starts with defeat
Crawley Town suffered another defeat, this time against League One outfit MK Dons as their opening group stage game of the Jersey Mikes Trophy ended in a 4-1 defeat.
Colin Kazim-Richards made a number of changes to his side with five players making their first starts of the season.
Crawley had an two early openings inside the first five minutes both in quick succession as Hull City loanee Nathan Tinsdale was able to work some space inside the box before looking to put it past Dons keeper Will Dennis but he parried it away before Gianmarco Di Biase followed it up with a left-footed drive from a tight angle which forced Dennis into another save.
Lewis Richards made his first of a number of great runs down the left hand side with just under ten minutes played before delivering a low cross into the box where four or five Reds players were waiting but the ball was too close to the keeper.
Jay Matete stung the palms off Jackson Izquierdo a few minutes later before Klaudio Krasniqi spun away from Marvin Ekpiteta but the midfielder didn’t have enough pace to capitalise and ended up producing a tame effort on goal.
With 35 minutes played former Crawley player Rushian Hepburn-Murphy headed over before Ibrahim Fullah’s right-footed shot from just outside the 18 yard box was comfortably saved by Izquierdo followed by a miscued effort from Ben Wiles which went high and wide of the post.
There wasn’t much to choose between the two sides but soon League One side MK Dons quality shone through two minutes before half-time as former Huddersfield man Wiles found the bottom right corner with a delightful effort after picking up the ball just outside the box.
The home side put themselves two to the good just two minutes later as centre-back Max Sanders headed home from the centre of the box with a guided header into the bottom left corner.
The Reds started the second half fast as they chased a two goal deficit. Jude Robertson forced a decent stop from Dennis six minutes into the second half as the youngster picked up the ball just outside the box following a corner.
Hepburn-Murphy then did the same at the other end forcing Izquierdo to put it behind for a corner with the second half starting in a very open manner.
Just past the hour mark Elijah Campbell put the Dons three ahead as he found the right side of the goal with another composed finish from the centre of the box.
With 20 minutes left to play the home side were offered a chance to put a fourth past the Reds when the referee pointed to the spot after Pele Arganese-McDermott handballed it in the box and Hepburn-Murphy took that chance with a convincing penalty.
As the game entered injury time Crawley grabbed themselves a consolation through Tinsdale with Ty Ewens-Findlay providing the assist.
Malcolm Ebiowei also hit the bar with a brilliant effort in added time.