Rotherham 1-4 MK Dons: Newly-promoted Dons start with a win

MK Dons began their first season at Sky Bet Championship level with a comfortable 4-1 win at Rotherham.

First half goals from Rob Hall, Jordan Spence and Dean Bowditch handed them the perfect start before Carl Baker rounded off the win with 15 minutes to play.

The Dons took a fifth-minute lead when Bowditch was allowed to get down the left-hand side and put in a cross that Rotherham's debutant goalkeeper Kelle Roos could only palm out for Hall to tap in.

The home side were quick to respond with Matt Derbyshire powering a header in from Chris Maguire's corner on 13 minutes to level up the scores.

MK Dons then had a chance on the breakaway but Ben Reeves hit his shot straight at Roos.

Rotherham missed two good chances to take the lead.

First, Derbyshire broke the offside trap before his shot was turned on to the crossbar by David Martin. Following up, Aidy White inexcusably prodded the ball wide of the empty net in an early contender for miss of the season.

Moments later, Derbyshire was denied by Martin when he again slipped by the Dons' rearguard and was one-on-one.

They were to regret those misses when the Dons forged back ahead on 28 minutes.

Roos was deceived by Spence's deflected cross from the right, which appeared to strike Danny Collins before sneaking inside the near post.

It got even worse for the Millers before the break with the visitors making it 3-1 on 35 minutes.

Rotherham skipper Greg Halford misjudged a pass to team-mate Tom Thorpe which allowed Reeves to burst through and pick out Bowditch to fire in at the near post.

One of Rotherham's eight debutants, Joe Newell, almost got them back into it before half-time with a free-kick that had to be punched away by Martin.

Both White and Grant Ward were replaced at the break with Paul Green and Lee Frecklington coming on for Rotherham.

Their play improved slightly with Newell shooting from the edge of the box and Green heading over Frecklington's centre.

The away side nearly added to their lead when Hall picked out Dean Lewington from the left hand side. The defender lifted his shot just over the bar.

Thorpe then headed tamely at goal when in a good position before the visitors sealed the points in the 75th minute.

Substitute Baker turned left-back Newell inside out before powering an effort beyond Roos in front of the travelling support.

It needed a strong block from Thorpe to deny Reeves making it five in the closing stages.

Rotherham boss Steve Evans: 

"If you don't defend right and take chances at key stages of the match it's always going to be tough. There's no excuse. The defending wasn't good enough. At 1-1 it only looked like there was one team in it but you can't miss the open goals and chances we miss and expect to win a game."

MK Dons boss Carl Robinson:

"Internally we are very, very confident. To be tipped to go down and finish 24th is tremendous motivation for us. For the first day of the season it is excellent but we cannot get carried away in August. I'm really very pleased with all of the players. For six weeks we've been fighting tooth and nail to get to the level where we'd be competitive. We've made a statement of intent really early on."