Crawley Town players and staff celebrateGetty Images

Crawley Town's 8-1 aggregate victory over MK Dons is the biggest in EFL play-off history

David McIntyre
BBC Sport

Danilo Orsi scored a hat-trick as Crawley Town demolished Milton Keynes Dons to secure a place in the League Two play-off final and the club’s first-ever visit to Wembley.

Leading 3-0 from a superb win in a one-sided first leg, Crawley, who will play Crewe Alexandra on Sunday, 19 May for a place in League One, opened up a five-goal aggregate lead with first-half strikes from Jay Williams and Orsi.

Max Dean scored for MK Dons just before half-time, but Orsi struck again early in the second half.

Dean had a penalty kick saved by keeper Corey Addai before Jack Roles netted and Orsi completed the rout.

Their semi-final humbling means MK Dons have now competed in the play-offs six times without reaching a final.

Boss Mike Williamson insisted “nothing is irreversible” after his team’s heavy first-leg defeat and that they were capable of winning the tie.

However, they produced another horror show and conceded after just three minutes.

The goal came after the hosts were caught trying to play the ball out from the back.

Having robbed Alex Gilbey as he tried to collect a pass from Jack Tucker, Williams fired past keeper Filip Marschall from the edge of the penalty area.

Worse followed for MK Dons on the hour mark - again after an error at the back.

Crawley closed down and won possession once more, and after Dan Harvie misjudged the bounce of the ball, Orsi nipped in front of him and finished emphatically.

Williamson’s side pulled one back in first-half stoppage time. Jack Payne’s free-kick from the left was nudged back across goal by Tucker to Dean, who had a simple close-range finish.

The goal was Dean’s 19th of the season and he was arguably fortunate to still be on the pitch, having earlier appeared to stamp on Williams.

Three minutes into the second half, Crawley’s five-goal cushion was restored.

Again they scored after stealing possession. Liam Kelly seized the ball in midfield and continued into the box where he collected a return pass from Klaidi Lolos, drew Marschall from his line and, rather than shoot, opted to tee up Orsi for a tap-in.

When Kelly handled while blocking Ellis Harrison’s cross, the resulting penalty gave Dean a chance to reduce the deficit again and reach the 20-goal mark, but Addai dived to his right to save the spot-kick.

Crawley were relentless and Roles had a long-range strike pushed against the post by Marschall before scoring late on.

After evading two challenges to set up Orsi, Roles pounced on the loose ball after his team-mate was tackled and thumped it into the bottom corner.

And in stoppage time, Ronan Darcy found space on the left, collected Nick Tsaroulla’s pass and crossed for Orsi to complete his hat-trick.

Danilo Orsi celebrates a goal for CrawleyGetty Images

Danilo Orsi (left) was outstanding on a historic night for Crawley Town

This is Crawley's first-ever appearance in the play-offs and they almost did not make it.

The Red Devils, widely tipped to struggle against relegation this season, were outside the top seven going into the final round of fixtures, but their 2-0 final-day victory over Grimsby enabled them to overtake Barrow, who were held to a 1-1 draw against Mansfield.

Now they have the opportunity to return to the third tier for the first time since 2015.

MK Dons boss Mike Williamson told BBC Three Counties Radio:

“I think that was probably the hardest football match I’ve ever had to watch.

“We’ve come up short, so there’s a lot for me to digest right now and I’m not going to measure our season since coming in on two games. It’s important to keep perspective. But right now the emotions are very raw and the lads are hurting.

“We’ve got to come back in preseason focused. We have a lot of work to do and we’re prepared to do that.

“We lost our shape and got ragged against a very good team. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got more than that next year.

“We’re all hurting. The lads have given everything and we’ve come up short - and that’s only going to fuel and motivate us.

“The bigger the fall the harder you want to come back. I’m very confident we can achieve that."

Crawley manager Scott Lindsey speaking to Sky Sports:

"We came into this game really humble and really respectful.

"We kept our feet firmly into the ground. We were outstanding - aggressive with the press, aggressive with the ball. I thought we were brilliant.

"As a manager, you know how football can be. It's got a habit of kicking you when you're down so you never relax until that final whistle.

"When I look at all the players we've brought in, a lot of them are non-league. Liam Kelly got relegated last season with Rochdale. What a player.

"The players were unbelievable tonight. We will recover tomorrow and be back in on Monday. We will be getting to work, nothing will change with our preparation.

"We are really looking forward to it."