(Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)

Pete Winkelman raised a lot of eyebrows when he chose Roberto di Matteo to lead the newly promoted Dons into League One territory.

Let’s not forget this was a team forged by one of the best defensive midfielders this country has ever seen. To go for a Chelsea Legend reknowned for his flair and technical prowess was a surprise, especially since di Matteo has effectively slipped off of the footballing radar.

Still, Pete loves a big name, and no doubt perfectly qualified contenders such as Ian Holloway were overlooked for the glamorous appointment of Roberto di Matteo.

The lack of preseason organization was derided, and a terrible preseason led into a first game of the season against a Leicester City side playing in the third tier for the first time.

The Dons, devoid of any direction, lost out 2-0 to a vastly superior Leicester City. They were a complete polarization of the Dons; their new manager Nigel Pearson had clearly pumped a ruthless aggression into their side, big Steve Howard dominating physically at the top, allowing his pacey teammates to exploit any holes in the Dons defence. Dons target man Aaron Wilbraham hardly had a touch of the ball all game.

The fans listening to Five Live on the way home were treated to an embarrassed sounding di Matteo trying to shrug off the result.

One thing was for sure, with two home games coming up in the next seven days he needed to get the team working quickly.

He started from the back. Both results involved the Dons keeping a clean sheet. Norwich came to stadium: MK in the League Cup, and a great defensive display kept the Canaries out. Sam Baldock’s strike was the only goal of the game as the Dons progressed to round two.

The other fixture was the visit of Northampton town, for the first time ever. Three thousand away fans filled the North Stand, but the Cobblers failed to get past the determined pair of Sean O’ Hanlon and Danny Swailes. Wilbraham netted his first as the Dons got their first three points of the season.

It was the springboard for some great form. Come December the top of the table had MK Dons etched comfortably in the top two.

Then came the 28th of February. Top of the table Leicester, more than 20 games unbeaten, came to Milton Keynes as the Dons looked to cut down their lead at the top of League One. It was a true first versus second tie, end to end. Matty Fryatt, now with more than 30 goals under his belt, gave the Foxes the lead after just six minutes, but two goals from now talismanic midfielder Peter Leven meant the Dons took a lead into injury team.

What followed was farcical. Nine minutes of injury team were played, allowing Max Gradel to put a sweet free kick past Willy Gueret, and snatch a point for Leicester.

Cue amazing scenes from the Leicester bench. Nigel Pearson celebrated madly with his coaching staff. Perhaps the relief shown on the Foxes bench was testament to the class of di Matteo’s team, testament to how worried the Italian’s free flowing team had gotten Pearson.

That leads us, rather unfortunately, to a bit of March madness from the Dons. What started with a failure to close out games against the far inferior Swindon and Huddersfield, finished with a string of very disappointing results.

Defeat at the hands of promotion rivals Millwall, failure to beat lowly

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