DELE Alli ran the show and Daniel Powell rounded off a painful 5-0 drubbing for Steve Davis' Crewe when MK Dons sauntered into Gresty Road in January 2015.

England international Alli was three days away from a £5m move to Spurs but a loan back arrangement meant the midfielder stayed on with the Dons for the rest of the season to help his side clinch promotion to the Championship for the first time in their short history.

Karl Robinson's side went top of League One after this win, Crewe's heaviest home defeat for 13 years. The magnitude of it was unexpected even though the Alex were also beaten heavily (1-6) at Stadium MK earlier in the 2014/15 campaign, a game in which Alli netted a hat-trick.

For Davis' men had strung together four wins from their previous six games, including a festive success over leaders Bristol City to move off the bottom of the table. But they were out for the count by half-time against Robinson's side whose passing football shone brightly that season.

With the likes of two-goal Devante Cole, on loan from Manchester City and Carl Baker and mainstays like Dean Lewington and Dean Bowditch Robinson had been able to assemble a decent side.

Crewe were three down by the break after Cole fired in twice, inbetween which Bowditch chipped the second over Ben Garratt. Baker left Alan Tate in his wake to drill in the fourth midway through the second half.

Nicky Ajose looked to have grabbed a late consolation but his effort was beaten out by keeper David Martin and then Powell crashed home a fifth in the last minute, which may have left some bewildered by boss Davis' post-match assessment that it hadn't been a "massively one-sided" game.

In fairness to Robinson he acknowledged his side had "out-Crewed Crewe" and purred: "I'm a big admirer of Crewe's philosophy, so to come here and perform like that is brilliant."

He said goalscorer Cole reminded him of former MK winger Mark Wright, a heavy goalscorer from out wide. But Cole has never recaptured goalscoring form he showed during a later spell at Fleetwood and is currently without a club after being released by Doncaster Rovers this summer.

Powell, on the other hand, has prospered with moves to Northampton and last summer to Crewe. He was a key figure in Dave Artell's potent front three for last season's promotion push, weighing in with nine goals.

Back in 2015 Ajose, on loan from Leeds, hit eight goals in 11 games to boost Crewe's fight against relegation. But the former Manchester United trainee failed to score in the final three months of the season – fortunately results elsewhere kept the Alex up as they went down to a final day home defeat at the hands of Bradford.

Ajose's nomadic career has since taken him to Exeter for whom he scored against Forest Green in the EFL Trophy earlier this month.

Crewe 0, MK Dons 5. January 31, 2015.