MK Dons 2 Albion under-21s 3

From Stadium MK to Wembley. It’s a long footballing journey Lewis Dunk will aim to complete tomorrow night.

His successors in the Albion youth-set-up will not be following him in the Checkatrade Trophy. Not this season anyway.

But they gave it one hell of a go before their hopes of progress to the knockout stages and, who knows, a Wembley final ended tonight.

A terrific win back at the stadium where Dunk made his senior debut for the club eight-and-a-half years ago was not enough – by just one goal on goal difference as Peterborough beat Luton 2-1.

But they went down with a fight, some style at times and an Aaron Connolly hat-trick in their final, must-win, group fixture.

Dunk is expected to make his England debut when USA visit the national stadium tomorrow.

Back home, Albion are trying to bring more of their own through.

This competition is part of that and Simon Rusk and his side will have learnt a bit about themselves in three very competitive fixtures.

These two sides plus Peterborough United, who were at Luton Town, were tied on two points going into the final round.

That left them all in contention to go through to the last 32 along with the table-topping Hatters.

A pattern of these Trophy games for the young Seagulls has been the need to show character and resilience.

That quickly became the case again as a strong Dons side went ahead in the sixth minute.

Kieran Agard guided a low shot on the turn past the dive of Hugo Keto and just inside the post.

Keto had to tip over a fierce long-ranger from Ousseynou Cisse soon after and then fumbled the resulting corner before Albion scrambled the ball away to safety.

The visitors were run ragged for long periods in their opening group fixture at Luton but played all the football next time out at Peterborough.

This one initially followed the pattern of Kenilworth Road and Albion looked ill at ease.

But they weathered a tough opening, played their way back into the game and drew level on 23 minutes from a predictable source.

Connolly was fed the ball down the inside-left-channel, set off on a run, held off Joe Walsh and then drilled a left foot shot from quite a tight angle past keeper Stuart Moore and in off the far post.

It was a terrific finish – made all the better because it came ten minutes after an awful miss.

Connolly looked odds-on to touch home Warren O’Hora’s header from a precise Jordan Davies corner but instead forced the bouncing ball over the bar from a couple of yards out.

His leveller, though, helped Albion take charge and they looked the better side for the next 20 minutes.

Mathias Normann skipped through the defence before drilling a low shot straight at Moore.

And the keeper produced a great save to tip away Gyokeres’ drive from the edge of the box after a spell of patient Albion possession football suddenly became something more incisive.

That save by Moore, low to his right, looked even more significant as MK Dons then regained the lead just before the break.

Lawson D’Ath played the ball low across goal and Mitch Hancox converted at the far post from close range.

So Albion had to score at least once in front of their small band of fans behind the goal.

James Tilley curled not far past the to corner. And Jordan Davies, arriving at the far post, hit the outside of the upright when Normann picked him out.

The leveller came on 68 minutes. Gyokeres got away down the right, crossed low and Connolly applied the expert finish.

Eight minutes later, Albion led as Connolly appeared beyond the far post to neatly turn home Gyokeres’ deep cross.

The Seagulls pressed for more. Crosses flew into the home box. Normann tested Moore and striker Ljubicic replaced defender O’Hora.

And Connolly ended up with the match ball.

It wasn’t quite enough.