Town dropped points and conceded in League One for the first time this season as they drew 1-1 away against the MK Dons having ended the game with 10 men after sub Flynn Downes was forced off with an injury. Jon Nolan gave Town the lead in the seventh minute, Daniel Harvie scored a deserved leveller for the home side five minutes after the break and the Blues, who drop to third, held on for a point.
Town boss Paul Lambert named the same team which beat Rochdale 2-0 at Portman Road last weekend, while Kayden Jackson and Alan Judge returned to the 18 after injury.
Tomas Holy continued in goal behind a back four of - from the right - skipper Luke Chambers, Toto Nsiala, James Wilson and Stephen Ward.
In midfield Andre Dozzell was joined by Nolan and Teddy Bishop, while Oli Hawkins was the central striker with Gwion Edwards to his right and Freddie Sears to his left.
Jackson, who had been sidelined with a groin injury since pre-season, was on the bench for the first time this season where he was joined by Judge, who missed the last two matches due to a hamstring problem.
Luke Woolfenden, who has also been out with a groin injury, was initially named among the subs in error, and was at the ground, before the club issued a correction and included Emyr Huws instead.
MK Dons boss Russell Martin made five changes to the team which lost 2-0 at Crewe last week with veteran centre-half Richard Keogh, who the Blues were keen on in the summer, and Scott Fraser making their full debuts for the club.
George Williams returned from injury to make his first appearance of the season, while David Kasumu and Harvie also came into the XI.
The first chance of the game, played on a very wet pitch but with the rain having stopped, fell to the home side in the sixth minute, a loose ball dropping to Keogh in the area following a corner but the Irish international scuffed to Holy.
Within a minute, the Blues were in front. After Hawkins picked up a loose pass from Keogh on the right, Edwards crossed and Sears sent it back in from the left, past Bishop as he and a defender tussled.
Edwards, who had made his way to the edge of the six-yard box, sought to chest it down and it fell to Nolan, who hit into the ground and past home keeper Lee Nicholls for his third goal of the season, already one more than he scored in 2019/20.
Town were close to making it 2-0 in the 18th minute when Wilson intercepted a pass on halfway and brought it forward before playing it Sears to his left. The former West Ham man cut in and hit a curling shot which flew just past Nicholls’s left post.
The Blues were forced into a change in the 22nd minute when Ward, who had undergone treatment for an achilles problem after the Town goal, made his way off with Myles Kenlock taking over and making his first league appearance of the season.
The home side were seeing most of the ball but without looking threatening, while the Blues appeared potentially more dangerous every time they broke, usually through Sears.
On 26 Dozzell played a looping ball over the top for Hawkins, who took it down but shot deep into the empty stand behind the goal.
However, it was the Dons who were seeing virtually all of the ball but with the Town backline resolute and Holy not forced into a save.
There was a big scare for the Blues in the 33rd minute when Kenlock’s loose pass back to Holy from the right played Carlton Morris in on goal. However, as the keeper advanced, Chambers slid in superbly to send the ball behind. From the corner, Keogh’s looping header was claimed by Holy.
In the 36th minute Harvie was probably lucky to see only a yellow card after kicking out at Chambers with the ball long gone.
Play continued and home skipper Lewington prevented Nsiala from putting it out of play for the Blues captain to receive treatment before referee David Rock stopped play, liaised with his fourth official, cautioned Harvie and awarded Town a belated free-kick.
That stoppage and a subsequent interruption for a Dons injury briefly knocked the home side off their stride and the Blues began to see more of the ball, albeit in their own half of the field.
In five minutes of injury time, Nsiala blocked from Joe Mason on the edge of the box with the Dons again dominating possession.
Just before the whistle, the former Wolves, Cardiff and Plymouth man should have levelled. Having been played in behind the Town backline on the left of the box the forward hit a low shot which the advancing Holy saved with his feet, much to the frustration of home manager Martin on the touchline.
That was the final chance of a half in which the Dons had had the lion’s share of the possession but had been unable to create a really serious chance until Mason’s effort just before the end.
Having got their noses in front early on through Nolan, as they did in the corresponding fixture last season, Town seemed not unhappy allowing the Dons the ball and attempting to break on them, which might well have led to a second goal through Sears.
The second half began in a similar manner to the end of the first period with the home side seeing most of the ball.
On 50 Fraser claimed he had been fouled as he scraped a shot wide under pressure but referee Rock waved away the somewhat ambitious protests.
The Dons had been pressing and in the 55th minute they equalised. Chambers slipped as Lasse Sorensen crossed from the right and Harvie had time to curl a shot past the advancing Holy, the first goal the Blues have conceded in the league this season and the first the Czech keeper has let in in all competitions.
Town immediately swapped Sears and Bishop for Judge and Downes, changes which were being prepared prior to the goal.
In the 58th minute Edwards broke away down the right, cleverly beat his man with a flick then sent in a cross which Hawkins was unable to get enough on and Williams cleared.
Having made their switches of personnel, the Blues started to see more of the ball than earlier in the half. On 62 Edwards robbed a defender of the ball in his own area but referee Rock harshly awarded a free-kick.
Two minutes later, Downes was booked for a foul on Morris and underwent treatment for a knock picked up in the incident.
The substitute was clearly in trouble due to the injury, hobbling around during the next passage of play before requiring the attention physio Matt Byard again and eventually making his way off. With Town having already made all their subs, they were forced to continue with 10 men.
In the 70th minute, Holy failed to deal with a cross from the right and the ball was played back in from the left and turned goalwards by Morris, fortunately straight at the Town keeper. Either side of him and it would have been 2-1 to the home team.
Two minutes later, the Czech keeper was unable to hold on to a Fraser shot but came off his line quickly to block Callum Brittain’s rebound with his chest.
The 10-man Blues were finding it tough to get out of their own half but on 77 Edwards played a ball forward down the left for Hawkins, who did well to get away from two men but was pulled back by Kasumu, who was booked.
A minute later, Edwards outpaced Williams down the Town left but failed to find Judge with his low cross towards the far post. In the 79th minute the Dons replaced Sorensen for Regan Poole, then five minutes later Sam Nombe took over from Morris.
With two minutes remaining Holy, not having his best day for the Blues, seemed to leave a Williams cross from the right but it struck Harvie on his midriff and bounced behind.
Soon after the former Gills man and Kenlock appeared to miscommunicate as a ball was played into the area from deep but the full-back was able to clear.
The Blues backline remained resilient during five minutes of injury time to see out the draw.
Town will ultimately be happy to have gained a point against an MK Dons side better than their disappointing start to the season had suggested and having played the last 22 minutes with 10 men following Downes’s injury.
The Dons, who perhaps surprisingly drop to the bottom of the table, will feel that having deservedly got on terms - they had started the second half much the better team - and given the extra man, the game was there for the taking.
The Blues were only briefly in control following the substitutions but Downes’s swift exit handed the impetus back to the home side.
In addition to the first dropped points of the season and a disappointing overall display, Town leave Stadium MK with Downes and Ward, one of the early season’s best performers both having suffered knocks.
Town are down to third in the table behind new leaders Lincoln and Hull City, now the only two sides in the division with 100 per cent records.
MK Dons: Nicholls, Williams, Lewington (c), Keogh, Kasumu, Morris (Nombe 84), Fraser, Sorensen (Poole 79), Mason, Harvie, Brittain. Unused: Walker, Cargill, O’Hora, Houghton, Sorinola.
Town: Holy, Chambers (c), Nsiala, Wilson, Ward (Kenlock 22), Dozzell, Nolan, Bishop (Downes 55), Edwards, Sears (Judge 55), Hawkins. Unused: Cornell, Huws, Lankester, Jackson. Referee: David Rock (Hertfordshire).