Honours were deservedly even at stadium:mk when MK Dons substitute Jude Stirling launched one final long throw into the Posh penalty area in the third minute of injury time.

As the Posh defence switched off, Aaron Wilbraham showed excellent control to tee up Gallen eight yards from goal, but instead of wheeling away in delight at scoring a dramatic winner, he was burying his head in his hands after missing the equivalent of a six inch putt.

For a striker with such a clinical reputation it was an alarming miss. It was his 'Ronnie Rosenthal' moment and lead to humbling apologies to his team-mates after the match.

It would have been a numbing moment for Posh as they had battled back from a dreadful start to the big game to match their table-topping opponents in a contest of rare quality at this level of football.

The occasion, the superb stadium and an atmosphere boosted by more than 3,500 visiting fans demanded a high class spectacle and few, with the exception of Gallen and Dons manager Paul Ince who delivered a nasty assault on a water bottle at the end, would have left the ground disappointed.

Dons were exceptional in the opening 20 minutes, spraying the ball around arrogantly and easily, and switching play from flank to flank at will. Their 12th minute goal came as no surprise, even if a slip by ultra-consistent Posh defender Chris Westwood did.

Westwood's ill-timed lunge enabled home striker Jemal Johnson to skip clear down the right wing and his cross was helped on by Colin Cameron for Wilbraham to net from close range.

"We lacked self-belief in those early stages." moaned Posh boss Darren Ferguson. "I stressed the importance of keeping the ball well at the start, but we didn't play at all."

Ferguson did see a decent response though as Micah Hyde started to gain plenty of possession and passes started to stick up front, but the equaliser 15 minutes after falling behind came from an unlikely source.

Chris Whelpdale has been known to impress Sir Alex Ferguson (a man who knows a thing or two about wingers) and the country's leading manager was in the crowd to witness another outstanding display from a player performing at Ryman League level this time last season.

It's been an outstanding debut season for Whelpdale, spoilt only by a lack of goals, but his diving header from Dean Keates' excellent cross suggests he's addressing that particular problem.

Two well-created goals in the opening half an hour suggested there would be more to come, but despite both sides putting together attractive moves, clear chances were rarer than fans of Ashley Cole.

It didn't help Posh to lose Craig Mackail-Smith with a hamstring injury towards the end of the first-half as it understandably took time for replacement Scott Rendell to find his feet, but the better opportunities did fall to the home side even before the final moments.

Gallen brushed Westwood aside and advanced unchallenged into the penalty area on the hour, but his hesitation proved fatal and Craig Morgan made a goal-saving interception.

And Jamie Day made one mistake in an otherwise faultless match by presenting possession to the Dons on the edge of his own area, but Wilbraham blazed the opportunity wide 14 minutes from time
Joe Lewis also spilled a harmless-looking shot from Lloyd Dyer, but watched gratefully as the ball slid behind for a corner, while in response Posh, despite some impressive probing by George Boyd, were restricted to half chances for Rendell and Morgan which were easily held by Willy Gueret.

Top scorer Aaron Mclean was as disappointing as MK Dons star man Keith Andrews. Neither lived up to their hard-earned reputations with the Posh man guilty of wastefulness in possession and inaccurate passing, while Andrews was never given the opportunity to add to his impressive goal tally.

It's a fair bet that he would have converted that last-gasp chance and handed his side a precious advantage in the race for the title (if these two teams fail to be promoted there is no natural justice in football), a point not lost on Dons' boss Paul Ince.

Ince said: "With 20 seconds left we couldn't have had a better chance to win a game and it couldn't have fallen to a better player."

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