CITY will always have the dubious honour of being the first away team to lose in Milton Keynes.

MK Dons marked their 20th anniversary as a club on Wednesday.

But the controversial move to uproot Wimbledon 80 miles to the Buckinghamshire city took place 11 months earlier in September 2003.

The Bantams were the fourth visitors to their temporary National Hockey Stadium home and lost 2-1 in a battle of the two bottom teams in the second tier. Boss Nicky Law would be sacked a week later.

Tomorrow will see City make their ninth trip to Stadium MK – like Valley Parade a fine arena stuck in the wrong division – with both sides looking upwards.

Mike Williamson’s Dons are one of the promotion favourites with the bookies after bombing out of the play-offs last season.

An 8-1 aggregate spanking by promoted Crawley was a painful exit for the team that had finished fourth, albeit eight points off the automatic places.

It has been much change in MK since – with 11 new signings and a similar number of player exits.

“The ones here last year are still carrying the pain and the hurt,” Williamson told the MK Citizen.

“But they have to channel it and fuel it into making sure we don't miss a second, don't take our eyes off the ball, so we don't have any lethargic games, because we want to make amends for that.

“The lads who have come in are here because they want to play in a successful team playing the right way and getting promoted.”

Pre-season performances have been encouraging against Championship duo Portsmouth and Plymouth.

While the personnel has been shaken up, the MK style of play will always be the same.

Williamson added: “It is a new team, a lot of new players and a lot of detail that we've gone through. We've tried to recruit players who can handle that detail too.

“We feel as though that showed against two Championship teams, but it's always a work in progress.

“The first game is always an unknown quantity. It will be a really open league, there aren't any clear stand-outs like last year.

“Everyone will have their tails up, so if you can stay consistent and be in the mix, they'll fancy themselves.”