Going into the play-offs as the fourth placed side in the league, MK Dons would’ve been many people’s favourites for promotion. Their season is however now over after being quite frankly humiliated by Crawley Town.
Mike Williamson’s side would put out arguably one of their worst performances of the season in the second leg of the semi-final, being thrashed 5-1 in the process. That would mean that the Red Devils would progress as 8-1 winners on aggregate, something which may leave quite a mark on Williamson and his players.
The scoreline over the two legs is the heaviest in play-off history, giving the Dons a rather unwanted record to add to their crushing end to the season. A loss may have been expected, especially after the first leg, but few would’ve thought it would’ve been a loss of this magnitude.
Crawley, and manager Scott Lindsey, deserve full credit for their performance over the two legs and they look as if they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the play-off final. They’ll be facing Crewe Alexandra, who’d stage a dramatic comeback before beating Doncaster Rovers on penalties on Friday night.
It’s not yet know what is next for Williamson, nor his players but one thing is for certain, the result may take some time to get over.
Speaking to the MK Citizen after the game, a rather dejected Williamson gave his view on what has to go down as one of the hardest games of his career.
“The play-offs are brutal.”
“It was really tough. I feel for the boys, we really suffered. That was the hardest match I’ve ever had to watch and we’ve come up short.
“I’ve been in football a long time, and I’ve felt hurt like this before. This is right there with the worst.
“I think you can imagine how it is in (the dressing room). When you see the boys hurting like that, they’re in a lot of pain, but that’s the industry. We’ve got to feel it, and now convert it. I’m very confident they’ll do that.”
“We ran out of steam. We lost our shape, we looked ragged against a very good team, but we didn’t stop running. There’s a lot of honesty in there, but we have to make sure we have more next season.”
Writer’s View
For all that Crawley were excellent over the two legs, MK Dons were quite frankly awful. You have to feel for Williamson and his players, who have been incredible since he took the helm but have ultimately ran out of steam at the wrong time.
This result will really test the squads’ character and if able to get over this, then they’ll be expected to fight for promotion again next season.
That is far easier said than done though and they may take some time to recover from it. Nonetheless, MK Dons still seem like a team on the up and although it may not seem like it at the minute, there is hope for the future.