The 2014–15 season was Milton Keynes Dons' eleventh season in their existence as a professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club, and their seventh consecutive season competing in

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

. As well as competing in League One, the club also participated in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, League Cup and

League Trophy The British Basketball League Trophy, often shortened to the BBL Trophy, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two periphe ...

. The season covers the period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015.

Season review

With what turned out to be a successful summer transfer window, manager Karl Robinson signed forwards

Benik Afobe Benik Tunani Afobe (born 12 February 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Hatta. Born in England, he represented the DR Congo national team on six occasions between 2017 and 2018. Afobe signed a professional contract ...

and

Will Grigg William Donald Grigg (born 3 July 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL League One club Milton Keynes Dons. Grigg began his professional career at Walsall and came to prominence during the 2012–13 season, winni ...

on loan from

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

respectively, as well as former loanee

Samir Carruthers Samir Badre Carruthers (born 4 April 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for National League South side Dartford. He has represented the Republic of Ireland at U19 and U21 level. With over 160 football league appeara ...

from

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

on a permanent deal. Centre-back

Kyle McFadzean Kyle John McFadzean (born 28 February 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre back for club Coventry City. Club career Sheffield United Born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, McFadzean was a member of Sheffield United's ...

was also brought in from Crawley Town. Following a 3–1 home victory over rivals

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

in the first round at the beginning of August, the club were handed a lucrative second round League Cup draw at home to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Against all odds, the Dons won the tie 4–0 through goals from Grigg and Afobe against a United team which included established

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

players David de Gea,

Javier Hernandez Javier may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Javier, in video game '' Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' * Javier Rios, a character in the Monsters, Inc. franchise. * ''Javier'' (album), a 2003 album by the American singer Javier Colon, known ...

, Shinji Kagawa and Danny Welbeck. The result set the tone for the remainder of the season. The Dons spent the majority of the year in promotion contention and achieved several notable victories including a club record 7–0 home win over Oldham Athletic, a 6–0 home win over Colchester United and 6–1 home wins over both Crewe Alexandra and Leyton Orient. At the end of the January 2015 transfer window, academy graduate

Dele Alli Bamidele Jermaine Alli ( ; born 11 April 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club Beşiktaş, on loan from Premier League club Everton. Born and raised in Milton Keynes, he joined the youth s ...

was sold to Premier League side

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

for a club record fee in the region of £5m plus add-on incentives and arrangements which included Alli being loaned back immediately for the remainder of the campaign. For the final few weeks of the season, the club were in competition with

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

and Swindon Town for second place (the final automatic promotion spot). With a considerable points gap to claw back, the Dons managed to obtain 25 points from a possible 27 to ensure the battle for promotion came down to the final day. With Preston in second place on 89 points and MK Dons in third on 88, Preston faced relegation-threatened Colchester United and only needed to match or better the Dons' result against already relegated

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

to ensure promotion. MK Dons went on to defeat Yeovil 5–1. With Preston losing away to Colchester, the Dons secured second place against the odds, achieving promotion to the second tier for the first time since their formation in 2004 along with a club record goal tally of 101 league goals.

Competitions

League One

Final table Source
Sky Sports
Matches

FA Cup

Matches

League Cup

Matches

League Trophy

Matches

Player details

: ''Note: Players' ages as of the club's opening fixture of the 2014–15 season.''

Transfers

Transfers in

Transfers out

Loans in

Loans out

Awards

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

2014–15 League One:

* EFL Young Player of the Year 2014–15: Dele Alli *

EFL League One Player of the Month The EFL League One Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League One, the third tier of English football. Originally named the Football League One Play ...

November 2014:

Carl Baker Carl Paul Baker (born 26 December 1982) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or as an attacking midfielder and was most recently assistant manager for AFC Telford United. He has made over 450 professional career appearan ...

*EFL League One Player of the Month January 2015: Dele Alli *

EFL Young Player of the Month The EFL Young Player of the Month is an award for young players in all three divisions of the English Football League. To be eligible players must be under-21 or turn 21 during the current season. It was first awarded in December 2009. Victor Mose ...

August 2014: Dele Alli * EFL League One Manager of the Month January 2015:

Karl Robinson Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United. Playing career Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Bri ...

*EFL League One Manager of the Month April 2015: Karl Robinson

References

External links

*
Official Supporters Association websiteMK Dons news on MKWeb
{{DEFAULTSORT:2014-15 Milton Keynes Dons F.C. season Milton Keynes Dons F.C. seasons Milton Keynes Dons