Following this morning’s official much-anticipated fixture release, Karl Robinson’s MK Dons have found out that their opening day fixture will be a trip to face Micky Mellon’s Shrewsbury Town. The fixture is a repeat of the opening day from three years ago, where the Shrews and the Dons played out a 0-0 draw at New Meadow. The Dons went on to finish in a disappointing 10th place that season. On the other hand, Shrewsbury suffered relegation along with Stevenage, Carlisle and Tranmere.
The disappointment of that campaign was short-lived though, as the next year was the Dons’ promotion to the Championship. Also, Shrewsbury gained promotion at the first attempt back to League One. In the 2015/16 season, both teams had difficult times in their new leagues, but Shrewsbury just managed to survive by a mere four points. MK Dons didn’t have such luck, and were relegated after just one year in the second tier.
After their opening day test, MK Dons will have two successive home games against Millwall and Bradford, before again going on the road, this time to Rochdale. Robinson’s side finish the month with a home game against rivals Peterborough.
Following that, the first game of September sees the Dons take the short trip up the M1 to face local rivals and recently-promoted Northampton Town. Next, they go a bit further north to face fellow relegation sufferers Bolton Wanderers. A trip to Fleetwood as well as home games against Oxford and Bury finish off September.
If the Dons are to have a good season as they did in their promotion year, then October looks fairly uneventful. This is until the final game where they travel to the famous Brammal Lane to take on Sheffield United. However, if they are to be languishing around mid-table, then games against Oldham, Port Vale, Scunthorpe, Bristol Rovers and Southend may well be very important in deciding the final outcome for their season.
This season also brings the added excitement of two games against AFC Wimbledon, arguably MK’s biggest rivals. The first of these games will be played out at stadium.mk on Saturday 10th December, while the return fixture will be a Tuesday game on the 14th March under the lights at Kingsmeadow.
As well as the league fixtures being released, the draw was also made for the first round of the League Cup, this year called the EFL Cup. The Dons will face another trip, this time to the south of Wales to take on Warren Feeney’s Newport County. This will be the first meeting between the two sides at senior level.
