Just as we were preparing ourselves for the third bout of extra time this season, recalled central defender Andre Amougou gave us a double spectacular with an overhead kick winner and followed it with his trademark back somersault celebration just as a huge sigh of relief was spreading around the ground.
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| Andre Amougou - scored a spectacular late winner |
It completed the comeback that had started half an hour earlier with Kieran Trippier's first Burnley goal from a free kick and ensured Burnley were one of two Championship clubs so far to reach the last 16.
I've always thought that three wins in a cup competition must constitute a 'cup run' but this one has been the strangest of cup runs so far. We've twice thrown away two goal leads against League Two clubs, Burton Albion and Barnet, before winning in extra time and now we've beaten a team from League One despite another below par performance that for far too long threatened to bring an end to our interest in the competition.
Thankfully, Amougou's 89th minute winner allowed us to get home a bit earlier and confirmed we'd be in the draw for the next round come Saturday.
Andre was one of four changes to the side that had started in the defeat at Peterborough on the Saturday. He came in for Ben Mee who had suffered concussion and the other enforced changed gave Lee Grant a recall because of Brian Jensen's groin injury that we now know will keep him out until after the next international break.
The other changes saw Chris McCann and Charlie Austin drop to the bench with Marvin Bartley getting his first start since he was sent off at Nottingham Forest last season and Zavon HInes his first ever Burnley start.
It appears everyone has become obsessed with the number of games we've gone without keeping a clean sheet. Peterborough's two goals on Saturday took the total to 20 games since our 1-0 win at Hull last March and it didn't take long for that to go to 21.
Six minutes to be exact; that's how long had gone when we went a goal behind and it was another disappointing goal to concede with both central defenders, David Edgar and Amougou, at fault following a ball initially played in by former Claret Luke Chadwick.
It led to another shocker of a display in the first half, which saw us playing with Ross Wallace in a central role in a formation that looked something like 4-2-3-1. and we could be thankful that the League One club didn't capitalise more.
They were very much the better side with Chadwick so often pulling the strings for his team mates and we could not have had too much of a complaint had we gone in at half time with a bigger deficit than the one goal.
They passed the ball more crisply and their movement was head and shoulders better than ours with the Clarets again having no tempo whatsoever to their game in another slow, laboured performance.
Despite making a couple of saves, Grant didn't have too much to do but it was certainly more than opposition goalkeeper David Martin who had a relatively easy first half.
Thankfully the second half started better for us but after we'd seen Chadwick clear a Jay Rodriguez effort off the line we were very close to going 2-0 behind. It was Jay Rod who allowed them to go through and Lee Grant made an excellent save to keep out Jabo Ibehre.
They were first onto the loose ball but Brian Easton got his body in the way of the follow up shot to get in a block and Chadwick couldn't get a third shot away.
There is no doubt we were doing better in the second half but the equaliser, just before the hour, came as a shock. We hadn't really threatened a goal, other than Jay's header, and Eddie Howe was just about to make a double substitution with the McCann and Austin ready to come on.
Then we won ourselves a free kick some 25-yards out for handball against Chadwick. As was the case with just about every free kick we won all night, MK goalscorer Powell stood right by the ball to prevent it being taken quickly, and hardly surprisingly without referee Scott Mathieson bothering to take any action.
Once we'd got him out of the way on this one it was left to Kieran Trippier to curl it right into the bottom left corner of the net.
Finally we were level and almost instantly we made the two changes with Dean Marney (captain for the night) and Hines making way. Interestingly, at the same time they replaced Darren Potter with Anthony McNamee, a reminder of our 2-2 draw at Norwich last season when McNamee came on and changed the game.
He almost changed this one too, forcing Grant into another outstanding save, but in truth we were always the more likely winner in the remaining half hour. With Wallace restored to the right and Treacy getting wide on the left we began to stretch them and, dare I say it, we even saw some movement.
We had half chances but nothing clear cut and it looked to be heading into that extra time and potentially penalties. Then, incidents at both ends decided it. Another former Claret, Dean Bowditch, almost got on the end of a cross but managed to throw himself into the net rather than the ball.
That was their last chance and when we got the ball to Wallace with just over a minute of normal time remaining he crossed for Amougou who got that winner. It might have got a deflection, in fact it did, but it was still a spectacular effort from the defender, the sort of goal our chief exec has lived on for over 37 years. It was deserving of winning any game.
And so, to Saturday's draw, and hopefully a real shout of a quarter final place.
The teams last night were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Andre Amougou, David Edgar, Brian Easton, Dean Marney (Chris McCann 60), Marvin Bartley, Ross Wallace, Keith Treacy, Zavon Hines (Charlie Austin 60), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Jon Stewart, Steven Hewitt, Alex McDonald, Dominic Knowles, Shay McCartan.
Yellow Card: Brian Easton.
MK Franchise: David Martin, Adam Chicksen, Tom Flanagan, Shaun Williams, Dean Lewington, George Baldock, Darren Potter (Anthony McNamee 60), Luke Chadwick, Jabo Ibehre, Dean Bowditch (Charlie Collins 87), Daniel Powell. Subs not used: Ian McLoughlin, Harry Milton, Joel Gyasi, Stephan Powell, Mathias Kouo-Doumbe.
Yellow Card: Daniel Powell.
Referee: Scott Mathieson (Stockport).
Attendance: 4,134.