IT was out of the frying pan and into the fire for Accrington Stanley as they were on the end of a 5-0 thrashing by league leaders MK Dons.

The Reds followed up the disappointing midweek reverse to Rochdale with a result that brought an end to their five game unbeaten run away from home.

It was a makeshift side that took to the field for Stanley, who were still without the injured Kenny Arthur, Peter Cavanagh and Roscoe Dsane, and for the first time in the Football League, Coleman was without Paul Mullin who had picked up a freak neck injury.

With Rommy Boco and Ian Craney employed as strikers in a 3-5-2 formation the Reds hoped to continue their good work away from home.

But their hopes were to be short lived.

Goalkeeper Ian Dunbavin saw action early and he did well to parry Kevin Gallen's drive in the second minute, but it was the start of an alarming trend as the Dons put pressure on the Stanley goal.

And just seven minutes later Paul Ince's side made the breakthrough as Danny Swailes headed down Mark Wright's cross to find Captain Keith Andrews inside the penalty area. Top scorer Andrews made no mistake from close range, firing past Dunbavin into the top left corner.

The goal encouraged the league leaders to express themselves further, and their passing became more and more fluid as the first half wore on.

Meanwhile Stanley struggled to get out of their own half.

And the task was only to get harder after warning shots from Wright and Sean O'Hanlon went wide before the Dons grabbed their second.

With 25 minutes played Dunbavin denied the impressive Lloyd Dyer, but from the rebound, Wright found ex-Red Alan Navarro at the back post who poked home his first Dons goal.

Coleman made an immediate substitution to change the shape of his side, with Billy Dennehy replacing Mark Roberts to change to a 4-4-2 formation.

But the alteration did little to boost the Reds as an attacking force, with Willy Gueret in the Dons goal a virtual spectator.

The lively Colin Cameron and predatory Andrews both fired wide before the half hour mark, and soon it was three.

With just a few first half minutes remaining, left back Dean Lewington found Gallen who helped the ball onto Cameron just outside the box.

The former Wolves man got the ball out from under his feet and struck it firmly past Dunbavin into the bottom right corner.

Half time couldn't come soon enough, and the Dons duly passed their way through the remaining minutes.

After the break Coleman made his two remaining substitutions and brought Shaun Whalley and John Miles into the fray for Boco and David Brown.

But the second period continued to follow the pattern of the first, and after just three minutes the home side had a fourth.

Robbie Williams challenged Wright in the box and the ball fell to Dyer who lashed home off the underside of the crossbar.

Stanley did tighten up and reduced the number of chances that the Dons created and they even fashioned some half chances for themselves, with a Sean Webb header going wide and a Jay Harris drive meeting a similar fate, before Ian Craney won a free kick just outside the box but fired it over the bar.

Dyer completed the rout 13 minutes from time when he curled a left foot shot past Dunbavin from the right flank to grab his second of the game.

Stanley might have grabbed a consolation with a Miles free kick late on, but the number eleven couldn't keep his effort down before Dyer missed his chance of a hat-trick with a similarly wayward set piece in stoppage time.