• MK Dons 3

AFC Wimbledon's Adebayo Akinfenwa takes the ball down in front of MK Dons' Kyle McFadzean, who opened the scoring. Photograph: Alex Morton/Action Images

The scoreline might suggest a routine cup win for a League One side against League Two opponents, but much as everybody connected with Milton Keynes might like to believe otherwise, including one suspects the Football Association, this is a fixture which will never be just another game. A decade after 'Franchise FC' emerged from the wreckage of Wimbledon Football Club, passions ran high, off and sometimes on the pitch, and a late penalty for the visitors prompted a brief pitch invasion by the visiting supporters.

Having chosen to eat at the Ikea store next door rather than put a single unnecessary penny in the pockets of an outfit they will always consider stole their club from under them, most of the 1,100 or so supporters who made the journey up from London for only the second meeting between the sides spent the match making the continuing strength of their feelings apparent.

Having seen his team come from behind to win their opening League One fixture against Gillingham on Saturday, Milton Keynes manager Karl Robinson made just two changes, bringing in Daniel Powell in midfield and Benik Afobe up front. With rather fewer resources at his disposal, AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley made just the one alteration to the side that drew with Shrewsbury in League Two, and that was enforced, Mark Phillips replacing the ineligible Gills loanee Adam Barrett in central defence.

While there were considerably fewer spectators in the ground than the 16,500 who watched the first-ever meeting between these clubs in the FA Cup in December 2012, the noise level at kick-off was an indication of the depth of feeling.

It rose even louder when Wimbledon very nearly took the lead in the 17th minute, Matt Tubbs turning the ball against the legs of MK goalkeeper David Martin from close range after Adebayo Akinfenwa was allowed to pull the ball back from the byline. It was a better chance than some in the ground may have realised, but the immediacy of the response from the home team was impressive. Danny Green's corner reached Kyle McFadzean, and having scored with a header on his debut on Saturday, the former Crawley defender made it two in two games by cleverly turning the ball home from just inside the six yard box.

AFC Wimbledon continued to cause occasional problems though, notably through the extraordinary figure of Akinfenwa, who belied his bulk in guiding a header not far wide of Martin's right-hand post. The big man did it again just before the break, Martin touching a looping effort over the bar.

From the resulting corner Sean Rigg should have done better than pull a shot wide. Three minutes after the break, however, MK put the game beyond their opponents. Picking up the ball on the left, Powell was given far too much space as he advanced, and the midfielder hit a firm low shot that seemed to wrong-foot Wimbledon goalkeeper James Shea as it beat him to his right.

With the stewards having to work increasingly hard to keep a small number of away supporters in their section of the ground, the players did not help matters with a number of reckless tackles. MK's third goal, Afobe beating Shea after out-pacing the tiring Wimbledon back-line, made the atmosphere a little less fractious, at least until Tubbs' spot-kick.