Adam Moriarty made his first academy appearance in 16 months as Mike Dove's side picked up a point at home to Watford.

Moriarty suffered a horrific knee injury in November 2005 that threatened to end his career before it had started.

A completely innocuous challenge ruptured his cruciate ligaments, medial ligaments and broke his fibula.

But after having his scholarship suspended by the club and going through hell to get his career back on track, the young midfielder finally made his comeback as an 84th-minute replacement for Tom Battams.

Mike Dove said: "It was the highlight of the day, to see Adam running out onto that pitch after everything he has been through was just a wonderful moment.

"Within about 30 seconds, he went flying into a 50-50 challenge and we were all holding out breath. But he won it with a fantastic tackle, got up and sent us on a counter attack - the cheer was like he'd scored a goal.

"It's a fantastic day for Adam, he has been a shining example of desire and dedication for the last 16 months. He was only on for six minutes but he looked really sharp."

The game had started well for the Dons, with Kieran Murphy heading Sam Collins' corner against the crossbar with only two minutes on the clock.

While playing positively throughout the first half, the Dons held firm with goalkeeper Ryan Flood making a good save from close range before the defence did well to clear a dangerous situation from a corner.

A good period of play for Dove's side forced some dangerous set-pieces and saw the Dons keep possession for long periods but despite going close through Ollie Thorne and Dan Powell, the scores were level at half time.

"I really got into them at half time and that might have surprised them a little bit," said Mike.

"We were on top but we were not making the most of our chances. We had a good period in the half but I knew we could be even better and we needed to work harder to recover when the moves broke down. When on top, you cannot drop the tempo, you have to keep pushing."

"We also talked about staying tight early in the half after conceding straight after the break last week."

Flood made sure they did stay tight with an early one-on-one block in the half before Lovegrove's free-kick came back off a post.

Sam Baldock and Powell both saw efforts go close as the game became slightly one-sided but the Dons were unable to force an opening against an inspired visiting goalkeeper.

Murphy headed another Collins corner straight at the goalkeeper as frustrations grew before Stephane Koffi's introduction after a six week absence with an ankle injury.

Moriarty almost made it a fairytale comeback when he fired just over from distance but Watford clearly hadn't read the script.

Mike added: "A clean sheet is a big positive and if you look at Saturday, the first team, under 18s and under 16s haven't conceded a goal between them.

"It was a big improvement on last week in terms of tempo and it's great to see the injured lads like Steph and particularly Adam coming back."