Saints clearly set out to get down and scrap in the mud with the Dons.

Saints had their game plan set dwon right from the kick off and that was to dig in and not concede an inch to an MK Dons side who hassled and niggled.

In the first half the only real shock though was how Saints went in only a goal up as they dominated the game and squadered several decent opportunities before Mikhail Antonio got what turned out to be the games only goal.

Added to that some woeful refereeing decisions by not only the ref himself but his linesman and Saints could of and should of had the game dead and buriied before the break.

But the Dons were never going to lay down and die and Alan Pardew was perhaps wise to not throw caution to the wind in the second half and Saints went safety first to ensure they didnt concede.

But the downside of this was that too often Saints didnt press forward when they should of and also that the ball was hoofed a little too much when there was time to get it down and pass.

The general verdict was that Saints had far too much for MK and were comfortable for most of the game, but Saints dont do comfortable very often, and when Morgan Schneiderlin was sent off you knew it would be a tough finale, especially as the home side started to use the long throw in tactic at every opportunity.

But Saints despite the odd scare, remained resillient with Jose Fonte putting in another man of the match performance.

The only question mark is why Alan Pardew seemed to have no intention of using a second substitute, after the dismissal of Schneiderlin we needed fresh legs and the obvious choice was to replace Antonio with Waigo, however this was not even a remote possibility until Antonio went down with cramp in injury time, meaning that Waigo had to do a fast striptease and get on to ensure that Saints didnt have to try and repel them with only nine on the pitch.

All in all a pleasing result, even a satisfying one, it showed that Saints do have the strength in depth to take on and beat the best in League 1 even with injuries, however they now need to start doing that in the league, indeed start believing that they can do that in the league, as with our squad now we should be rolling over sides, as Norwich, Charlton and Leeds have been doing.

Off the pitch it has to be said that Stadium MK is the best of the modern stadia I have visited, everything about it was class, from the entrances and spacious concourse overlooking the pitch to the big padded seats and great sight lines, sadly though a great stadium is not getting great support, even without adding the seats to the second tier, MK have never filled the ground to much more than 75% and usually its around 50% full, on Wednesday it must have been embarassing to be an MK supporter as Saints had virtually half of a pitiful crowd of 7,918.

On that basis it seems that Milton Keynes is not a football hotbed and if you cant stimulate more than around 4,000 of your own fans for effectively a semi final, then when are you ever going to get a crowd, the infastructure around the ground does suggest that if England get the World Cup this with further expansion will be a great venue, but perhaps its future will lie not with MK Dons but as a neutral venue for FA Cup Semi Finals, Dons fans rattle around in its current state, if it was upgraded even further it would be a sad sight to see them rattling around.

Perhaps though hope the Dons could prosper, on returning to the pub it was very busy with Spurs and Arsenal fans out for a pint and to watch their game on SKY, MK will have to work hard to attract local support, but that support is perhaps not yet born as the current locals all have London teams to support first.         

Photo: Action Images

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