AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley admitted to high emotions after Tuesday night’s win over franchise club MK Dons, but behind the triumph was a tactical prediction that came true in devastating fashion.

Tuesday night’s 3-2 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy win – with goals from Adebayo Azeez, Sean Rigg and Adebayo Akinfenwa – was the Dons’ maiden win over their most bitter rivals in three attempts.

Ardley was only in the manager’s hot-seat six weeks when the Dons were drawn away in Buckinghamshire in the second round of the FA Cup in 2012 and suffered a last-gasp 2-1 defeat in front of the television cameras.

The two sides were drawn together again in the first round of this season’s Capital One Cup, and Dons went down 3-1, with only Matt Tubbs’ penalty to show for their endeavours.

So, by the time the sides faced each other in the second round of the JPT, Ardley was ready.

“They’re a good team, they’re in the League above us and are going well, so I came up with a different plan,” he said.

“We discussed it with the board last week, and talked about how we wanted to take the JPT seriously and have a good go.

“I didn’t think the way to beat MK Dons was to play 4-4-2, with our current strong front two in Akinfenwa and Tubbs leading the attack.

“The board asked why, and I said because we’re likely to spend 65 per cent of the time without the ball, and that’s not either of the front two’s game.”

He added: “I came up with the plan that the best way to beat them would be to have a high energy team that did great work without possession of the ball.

“In the meantime we’d have the strong front line on the bench and if the game was tight with 25 minutes to go, we’d unleash them.

“They [Akinenwa, Tubbs and Sean Rigg] came on and that is what happened, to the letter.”

Dons host League Two leaders Bury this weekend.