MK Dons play out draw with Grimsby Town in Lewington's final home game

MK Dons played out a 0-0 draw with Grimsby Town in a day where the home crowd said farewell to veteran star Dean Lewington.

On a day when the Dons’ captain played his final home game for the club, both sides created and missed opportunities, but neither goalkeeper would end it beaten.

A point means Paul Warne remains unbeaten in his brief tenure after being named as MK Dons’ Head Coach earlier this month. The team sit 18th, and they can no longer finish higher, although there are four teams within three points of them in the table ahead of next weekend’s season finale.

Having confirmed survival with victory at Crewe on Easter Monday, the Dons marked their final assignment of the 2024/25 season at Stadium MK by dedicating it to captain Lewington, who had announced earlier this month he would be retiring from playing at the end of the season.

The 40-year-old was given a guard of honour, as well as making his first appearance since November. The game came against a Grimsby side still with something to play for, with the Mariners beginning the day in 7th position and chasing a place in the play-offs.

Played amid a loud atmosphere from both fans, Grimsby had the first sniff of an opportunity when Charles Vernam had a strike deflected wide.

Grimsby skipper Danny Rose had a strike blocked, before the Dons began to create opportunities when Jonathan Leko had a curling strike just fly wide.

An open game saw both sides carry a threat, before MK Dons nearly took advantage of an opportunity when Connor Lemonheigh-Evans saw a crisp strike well stopped by Grimsby goalkeeper Jake Eastwood.

A dangerous cross-shot from Vernam narrowly failed to pick someone out in the middle, before the Dons’ Liam Kelly fired a low strike wide after good set-up work.

Grimsby then briefly thought they had opened the scoring when Rose touched in Denver Hume’s cross, only for an offside flag to be raised.

Lemonheigh-Evans flicked a strike wide just before the break, while Kelly also lost possession when in position to shoot after a breakaway move in stoppage time.

Rose would then have another goal disallowed after the break, with the officials ruling he had fouled Craig MacGillivray before scoring.

Eastwood in the Grimsby goal then made a pair of stops to thwart the Dons, making one stop to deny Lemonheigh-Evans after a surging run through the middle before he made another intervention to deny Scott Hogan.

Hogan would injure himself in shooting and was taken off, but the Dons would still have some momentum as Lemonheigh-Evans sent a header wide.

Lewington was given a standing ovation by home supporters when he was taken off with 20 minutes to go, with the substitution bringing an end to his career of having played over 900 times for MK Dons and in every season since Wimbledon first moved to the city in 2003.

With Salford beating Colchester, Grimsby began to press in search of a goal that would keep them in the play-off positions going into the final day. But the Dons were still posing a threat, with Jack Sanders’ header at a corner narrowly creeping wide and narrowly bouncing in front of Lemonheigh-Evans when he could’ve touched it over the line.

Grimsby’s best chance came late on and very nearly saw the visitors hit the jackpot, as Kieran Green’s free-kick struck the post.

The eight minutes of stoppage time took on a frantic pace, with both sides spurning chances to steal the points. Both the Dons’ chances fell to Lewington’s replacement Laurence Maguire, who saw one header saved by Eastwood and another bounce wide, while Grimsby’s Evan Khouri saw a strike skew wide from a decent position in-between the two Maguire headers.

As it was, however, neither side could find the decisive breakthrough, and with that, the points were shared on both Lewington’s football farewell and the Dons’ last home game of the campaign. They wrap up their season away at Swindon Town on the final day of the campaign next week.

MK Dons: MacGillivray – Offord, Sanders, Lewington (Maguire 69) – Nemane (O’Reilly 76), Lemonheigh-Evans, Kelly (White 76), Thompson-Sommers, Tomlinson – Leko (Orsi 60), Hogan (Hendry 60)

Subs not used: Trueman, Waller

Booked: Hendry

Grimsby: Eastwood – Rogers, Tharme, Warren – Svanthorsson, Khouri, McEachran, Green, Hume – Vernam (Cass 52), Rose

Subs not used: Wright, Obikwu, Barrington, Ainley, McJannet, Burns