Preview: AFC Bournemouth

All you need to know ahead of today’s Carabao Cup clash…

28 August 2018

After an impressive 1-0 win over Exeter City last Saturday, attention now turns to the Carabao Cup for MK Dons as they make the journey to Premier League side AFC Bournemouth in Round Two of the competition.

Paul Tisdale's side overcame Charlton Athletic 3-0 in Round One of the Cup and were rewarded with a trip to the Vitality Stadium.

A victory tonight would see the Dons reach the Third Round of the competition for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

Kick-off is at 7.45pm.

Bournemouth continue to impress and attract admirers for their attractive style of play. The Cherries are currently amidst their fourth season as a Premier League side after earning promotion into the top flight back in 2015.

At the helm, Eddie Howe has been with the Club since 2012 – the 40-year-old started his footballing career with the Dorsetshire side. A former Defender, Howe had three spells with the Club racking up over 250 appearances.

Bournemouth currently sit sixth in the Premier League having picked up seven points from a possible nine for far this season. They began their campaign with a 2-0 with over Cardiff thanks to goals from Ryan Fraser and Callum Wilson before coming from behind the following weekend to beat West Ham 2-1 at the London Stadium.

On Saturday, they continued their impressive start to the season as goals from Josh King and Nathan Ake earned Bournemouth a 2-2 draw with Everton.

Kieran Agard scored a second-half penalty to earn MK Dons a 1-0 victory over the early-pace setters in Sky Bet League Two, Exeter City.

Agard, who missed an earlier spot-kick from 12-yards, made amends by converting from a later penalty to extend MK Dons’ unbeaten run to six games with their third league victory of the campaign - a result which sees them climb to second in the Sky Bet League Two table.

Bournemouth came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Everton at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday to maintain their unbeaten starts to the season.

Everton forward Richarlison was shown a straight red card four minutes before half-time following a clash of heads in the area with right-back Adam Smith.

However, that did not affect the visitors, who went ahead through Theo Walcott's goal before Adam Smith also saw red for hauling back the Everton winger.

Marco Silva's team soon doubled their lead thanks to Michael Keane's header, only for the hosts to take a share of the spoils after goals in the final 15 minutes from Josh King - via the spot - and Nathan Ake.

MK Dons manager Paul Tisdale: “We're really looking forward to going down there, I’ve always enjoyed matches down there. I know Eddie and his staff really well from over the years. We'll look forward to it, we have nothing to lose. The players should be looking forward to it and hopefully we'll take some supporters down there to enjoy the evening too.”

Paul Tisdale told iFollow MK Dons that he will make one or two changes to his MK Dons side for tonight's tie, giving opportunties to members of his squad.

He didn't reveal any fresh injury concerns heading into tonight’s clash, with Peter Pawlett, Conor McGrandles and Osman Sow all expected to miss the tie. The game will likely come too soon for Brandon Thomas-Asante, who is still undergoing his rehabilitation programme.

Sam Nombe was part of the matchday squad against Exeter and could once again feature after returning from an ankle injury but Mathieu Baudry is unavailable - he will serve the final game of his three-match suspension for his red card at Crewe Alexandra.

Eddie Howe has confirmed that summer signings Diego Rico and Jefferson Lerma are expected to make their debuts for Bournemouth this evening.

Howe has no fresh injuries and will still be without Junior Stanislas and Kyle Taylor.

James Linington will run the rule over tonight’s clash as he takes charge of his fifth match of the season.

The vastly experienced referee has so far issued 12 yellow cards this season, while he has send someone off.

Mr Linington last took charge of the Dons during their 1-0 win over QPR in the Emirates FA Cup last season.

His assistant referees tonight are Mark Russell and Dean Treleaven, while the Fourth Official is Ollie Yates.

MK Dons wins: 4
MK Dons wins at The Vitality Stadium: 3
Last MK Dons win: 1-0, 25 Feb 2012 (The Vitality Stadium)
Biggest MK Dons win: 2-0, 28 Dec 2010 (Stadium MK)

Draws: 3
Draws at The Vitality Stadium: 1
Last Draw: 1-1, 21st August 2012 (The Vitality Stadium)

Bournemouth wins: 5
Bournemouth wins at The Vitality Stadium: 2
Last Bournemouth win: 3-0, 2nd Feb 2013 (Stadium MK)
Biggest Bournemouth win: 3-0, 2nd Feb 2013 (Stadium MK)

Full-time result
MK Dons: 10/1
Draw: 4/1
Bournemouth: 2/7

First Goalscorer
Kieran Agard: 7/1
Rhys Healey: 8/1
Alex Gilbey: 12/1
Jermain Defoe: 3/1
Lys Mousset: 4/1
Jefferson Lerma: 14/1

Sky Bet Tip
Both Teams to Score, 5+ Corners for each team and 20+ Booking Points for each team: 33/1

Tickets for tonight's Carabao Cup Round Two with AFC Bournemouth are no longer available to book.

iFollow MK Dons will have also live commentary of the game for all supporters – click HERE to sign up for as little as £4.49 for a month. Carabao Cup matches are not available to watch on iFollow MK Dons,

Supporters can also stay in touch with the action via mkdons.com’s Match Centre, which can be accessed by visiting the home page from 6pm.

There will also be full coverage on the Club’s social media channels – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat!

A full match report will be available to view on mkdons.com straight after the final whistle along with full reaction from Paul Tisdale and a player. Highlights will be available to view from midnight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

***
Elsewhere in the Carabao Cup

Tuesday 28th August
Swansea City v Crystal Palace
AFC Wimbledon v West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers v Lincoln City
Bournemouth v Milton Keynes Dons
Brentford v Cheltenham Town
Brighton v Southampton
Burton Albion v Aston Villa
Cardiff City v Norwich City
Doncaster Rovers v Blackpool
Fulham v Exeter City
Hull City v Derby County
Leeds United v Preston North End
Leicester City v Fleetwood Town
Middlesbrough v Rochdale
Newport County v Oxford United
QPR v Bristol Rovers
Sheffield Wednesday v Wolves
Walsall v Macclesfield Town
Wycombe Wanderers v Forest Green
Stoke City v Huddersfield Town (8.00pm)
West Brom v Mansfield (8.00pm)

Wednesday 29th August
Everton v Rotherham
Millwall v Plymouth Argyle
Nottingham Forest v Newcastle United
Reading v Watford (8.00pm)

Match Reports

Report: AFC Bournemouth 3-0 MK Dons

MK Dons Carabao Cup campaign comes to an end at The Vitality Stadium...

28 August 2018

Despite facing Premier League opposition, MK Dons could take pride from their performance in a 3-0 defeat to AFC Bournemouth in Round Two of the Carabao Cup.

With over £70 million worth of talent taking to the field, Bournemouth's Premier League quality was displayed in the first half as goals from Lys Mousset and Ryan Fraser set them on the path to victory before Jordan Ibe secured the Cherries passage into Round Three of the Carabao Cup late on.

Paul Tisdale made four changes to his MK Dons side for the trip to the south coast. Rhys Healey made his full debut, less than a week after joining on loan from Cardiff City, while Oran Jackson made his first start in two years. The other two additions to the starting XI were Ousseynou Cisse and Ryan Watson. On the bench, there were places for David Kasumu and Finn Tapp as well as Osman Sow, who had been sidelined since March.

Eddie Howe made 10 changes to the starting eleven that earned a point against with Everton in their last outing but still boasted a number of Premier League regulars. Jermain Defoe, Lewis Cook, Tyrone Mings and Ryan Fraser featuring from the off - while £25 million man Jefferson Lerma made his Bournemouth debut.

The first chance of the game fell the way of the home side as five minutes into the clash, Jermain Defoe collected the ball inside the box from Lerma’s pass before his left-footed strike went wide of Lee Nicholls’ goal.

Seconds later, Nicholls produced a stunning one-handed save to tip over Ryan Fraser’s dipping effort behind for a corner. The set-piece, taken by debutant Diego Rico was cleared by the head of Alex Gilbey.

It was Gilbey who had the first chance of the game for Tisdale’s men, after some good possession in the final third, Gilbey was found by Houghton before his shot was deflected behind for a corner 14-minutes into the game.

Boruc claimed Lewington’s corner before sending his releasing Mousset on the counter-attack. The Bournemouth number 9 jinxed past two Dons defenders before slotting past Nicholls to put the Cherries ahead. 1-0.

Mousset almost doubled his tally for the evening minutes after the restart, Fraser, who created some space on the right, picked out the goalscorer – but the Frenchman with Nicholls producing an acrobatic one-handed save to deny the frontman.

After a good period of possession for the Dons, Nicholls was called into action as he got down quickly to deny Defoe’s snapshot.

With 36 minutes on the clock, the home side doubled their advantage. It was another breakaway attack with Ibe using his pace down the left, his deflected cross fell into the path of Fraser who hammered home from close range. 2-0.

Despite the deficit, the Dons continued to push for a way back into the game, with the first half coming to a close, Watson tried his luck 25-yards from goal – his shot, however, sailed over Boruc’s goal.

With both sides unchanged following the break, it was the Dons who had the first chance of the second half. Lewington found himself unmarked on the left, and after setting himself crossed towards the head of Rhys Healey, his header was cleared by Simon Francis.

The home side then rattled the woodwork on 56-minutes. Lewington was adjudged to have fouled Mousset on the edge of the box. Rico was the man trusted with free-kick duties with his powerful effort crashing off the crossbar and out for a corner.

It looked to be one from the training ground from Howe’s side as Fraser went short before finding Lerma unmarked on the edge of the box. The Colombian international forced Nicholls into a stunning save with his goal-bound effort pushed away by the Dons shot-stopper.

With Nombe replacing Cargill just after the hour mark, Tisdale shifted his formation to provide Healey more support in the final third – his change almost paid off immediately.

Gilbey’s delicate chip over the top found the advancing Nombe, the academy graduate looked the slide in Healey but his cross was blocked by Mings. From the resulting corner, Healey had two powerful shots on goal blocked.

Tisdale used the cup clash to give Osman Sow his first minutes of the season as the big Swede made featured for the first time since March.

He combined well with Nombe a number of times, with the duo looking bright together in their 20 minutes as a pair. Both Sow and Nombe had efforts on goal well saved by Boruc.

With the game drawing to a close, Ibe forced Nicholls into one final save - his curling strike was palmed away to safety by the keeper.

In the closing seconds, Ibe finally found a way past Nicholls. The winger jinxed his way onto his left foot before drilling past the Dons keeper right on full-time. 3-0.

Starting XI: Nicholls; Williams (Tapp, 62), Jackson, Moore-Taylor, Cargill (Nombe, 62), Lewington (c); Houghton; Watson, Gilbey; Cisse; Healey (Sow, 71).

Unused subs: Moore, Hancox, Kasumu, Agard.

Booked: Lewington.

Attendance: 9,747 (437 away)

Referee: James Linington.

Milton Keynes Dons

Standings

Preview: AFC Bournemouth

Full-match replay: AFC Bournemouth

Extended highlights: AFC Bournemouth

Gallery: AFC Bournemouth

Game in 2: AFC Bournemouth

Report: AFC Bournemouth 3-0 MK Dons

Full-match replay: AFC Bournemouth

Extended highlights: AFC Bournemouth

Gallery: AFC Bournemouth

Game in 2: AFC Bournemouth

Standings

Fixture News

Full-match replay: AFC Bournemouth

Extended highlights: AFC Bournemouth

Gallery: AFC Bournemouth

Game in 2: AFC Bournemouth

Fixture News

Full-match replay: AFC Bournemouth

Extended highlights: AFC Bournemouth

Gallery: AFC Bournemouth

Game in 2: AFC Bournemouth