NEWS CHANNELMK DONS 1 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1
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| New sining Alan Smith runs into a wall of Sheffield Wednesday players |
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Smith had to settle for a place among the substitutes but he came on early in the second half when both sides had already found the net.
It was a cagey, tense affair which neither side did enough to win and clear cut-chances were scarce at both ends of the pitch.
Dons were forced to reshuffle their back four due to the departure of Adam Smith and Mathias Doumbe's suspension so there were starts for Tom Flanagan and the returning Adam Chicksen.
Jay O'Shea made his second consecutive start after scoring last time out against Stevenage, and Shaun Williams returned from injury to slot into the midfield.
Jabo Ibehre dropped to the bench and there was no place for Darren Potter who missed the chance to appear against his former club due to illness.
On a freezing night Dean Bowditch warmed the gloves of Wednesday keeper Stephen Bywater early on with a sweetly struck drive following a swift counter attack.
All the talk had been about Alan Smith but Luke Chadwick, another former Manchester United player, grabbed some headlines himself by having a huge say in the opening goal after 17 minutes.
The midfielder let fly from range and after his effort had crashed off the bar, it rebounded against the unfortunate Bywater and dropped into the net.
It may well go down as an own goal but Chadwick will certainly want to claim it having not found the target since a scoring spree in the first few weeks of the season.
Wednesday had started brightly before the goal, winning a couple of corners, and they didn't take long to get themselves back into the game.
The ball was floated into the box and Dons keeper David Martin failed to claim it when surrounded by a crowd of bodies.
Martin wanted a foul but no whistle came and the loose ball was bundled in, possibly via a touch off Dons centre back Gary MacKenzie.
With the match now nicely poised it was Wednesday who raised the tempo and striker Gary Madine struck over after swiveling in the six-yard-box.
But the first half was hardly a classic with both sides struggling to test the opposing keeper while temperatures plummeted to below zero.
Both defences were holding firm and snubbing out any hopes of a cutting edge and the final passes were often drifting harmlessly out of play.
Passes were going astray and a lot of fouls were awarded in the scrappy contest.
The half-time whistle allowed both sides to retire to the warmth of the changing room and each manager knew the game could be grasped by the scruff of the neck if their players pushed up through the gears after the break.
Chris O'Grady got behind the home defence moments after the kick-off but he couldn't get clean contact and the ball was turned behind for a corner.
Dons needed to hack the resulting corner off the line and another Wednesday corner was then headed narrowly wide by Madine.
Karl Robinson only waited five minutes to introduce Smith and the new man, playing in midfield with Stephen Gleeson now dropping back, immediately threw himself into a crunching header.
Dons were given a lift and Shaun Williams' close range free-kick had to be cleared over his own crossbar by Wednesday's Jon Otsemobor.
The game continued in a similar fashion to the first half and Robinson threw on Ibehre with just over an hour played to try and add some strength to the forward line.
He made an immediate impact with a couple of strong challenges and Flanagan then had to throw himself at the ball to block John Bostock's drive.
With some questionable decisions from referee James Linnington beginning to frustrate Robinson on the touchline, Dons huffed and puffed but could not breach the Owls backline.
Smith was putting himself about well but was by no means bossing the game in the middle of the park and when Wednesday made trips forward they looked more likely than Dons did.
Miguel Llera headed over from close range and the home defence was being kept busy as Wednesday regularly broke at speed to keep the back four under pressure.
There was a flashpoint in the final ten minutes after Reda Johnson collapsed to the floor when face to face to Robinson after Mr Linnington had overturned a throw-in awarded to Wednesday.
Robinson screamed at Johnson to get up, but the ref saw enough to send the Dons boss to the stands, the second time this has happened in 2012.
Dons rallied late on but both teams will accept a point from a game where neither keeper was regularly tested.
Dons: Martin, Lewington, MacKenzie, Gleeson, Bowditch, MacDonald (Ibehre 61), Chicksen (Smith 50), Williams, Flanagan, O'Shea (Powell 79), Chadwick. Unused subs: McLoughlin, Baldock.
Sheff Wed: Bywater, Semedo, Sedgwick (Bostock 60), Prutton, Buxton, Batth, Otsemobor, Llera, R.Johnson, Madine (J.Johnson 61), O'Grady (Morrison 84). Unused subs: Weaver, Lines.
Att: 9776
