MK Dons manager Paul Tisdale comes up against his former side this weekend as Exeter City travel to Stadium MK looking to maintain their positive start to the season under Matt Taylor. The Grecians top the league with three wins and a draw from four games, while the Dons are fifth with two wins and two draws from the same number of fixtures.
Paul Tisdale Faces Former Side as Exeter Travel to Stadium MK
A Familiar Face
Before joining MK Dons in the summer, Paul Tisdale had spent his entire professional management career with Exeter City. Prior to this, he spent five years in charge of Team Bath, a side affiliated with the University of Bath.
His 12 years at St James’ Park will be fondly remembered by Exeter fans as he managed to get them out of the Conference and into League One with successive promotions, before establishing them as a firm League Two side with ambitions of climbing the Football League.
His time there came to an end, though, after two successive play-off final defeats. Pete Winkelman, the MK Dons chairman, worked tirelessly to bring Tisdale to the club after the success that he had gained at this level. Now, so soon after leaving, Tisdale finds himself coming up against the team he spent so long with.
Key Men
MK Dons
The Dons will be expecting big games from Jordan Moore-Taylor, Ryan Harley and Robbie Simpson, should they play, who all moved to Milton Keynes from Exeter with their boss, as they have to prove that they made the right decision to leave the Devon club.
It’s one of the other summer signings, though, who has quietly gone about his work in exemplary fashion. Jordan Houghton signed from Chelsea on a two-year deal, having spent time on loan with Doncaster Rovers. The central midfielder is highly-disciplined in terms of his positioning, has an excellent work-rate and his passing, so far, has been faultless. While it may be too early to draw comparisons to Darren Potter, who was influential in the Dons’ success of 2014/15, Houghton certainly looks like he could be the calibre of player to finally fill the void left by Potter after his departure in 2017.
His positioning will be key in this game as the defence will have Jayden Stockley and Jonathan Forte to cope with; two more-than-proven strikers at this level. Stockley scored 19 times last season, just six behind the leader (Accrington’s Billy Kee).
Exeter City
The main man for the visitors has already been mentioned above, as is his threat to the MK Dons defence. After a series of unsuccessful loan spells away from Bournemouth, as well as a brief permanent stint with Aberdeen, Jayden Stockley hit the ground running when he joined Exeter last season.
The 6’3″ striker netted 19 times in Exeter’s run to the play-off final but was kept largely quiet by Coventry City on the big day at Wembley.
Having already scored three goals this season, it’s clear that Stockley is hungry for success once again, and the Dons will have a huge task on their hands to keep him at bay.
Prediction
Both teams have had good starts to this season and each of them look set to continue that way regardless of the result in this game. The Dons will look to home advantage to give them the edge in this one, but their lack of firepower up front has cost them so far, and playing at home didn’t exactly give them an edge over Grimsby.
It’s going to be a close game, with the safe bet probably being a draw. This would be far from ideal for the Dons, as this would make it three draws in a row going into tough away fixtures against Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup as well as Forest Green and Yeovil in the league. Exeter, though, would probably take the point as the away team against a side that is aspiring to fight them all the way to the top this season.
Prediction: MK Dons 1-1 Exeter City
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