Paul Warne content that MK Dons got job done against Gillingham despite injuries

Paul Warne was pleased his MK Dons team adapted to injury issues to beat Gillingham, though admitted he would’ve liked a slightly more comfortable conclusion after 2 late concessions.

The Dons were able to take a three goal lead against the high-flying Gills, with a Sam Gale own goal followed by second half goals from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Callum Paterson helping the Dons to a 3-2 win.

Gillingham did score two late on through Seb Palmer-Houlden and Jonny Williams, but it was not enough to deny victory for MK Dons as they moved back into League 2’s play-off positions.

Speaking after the game, Warne said he was pleased to take the three points, particularly after seeing Rushian Hepburn-Murphy pull out through a training injury the day before and Scott Hogan suffer an injury in the warm-up. He did however admit the two late concessions had him on edge.

He said, “It’s a good win against a really good team. We had to defend a lot of set-pieces, crosses and second balls and for large parts, we did that really well with a threat, which really pleased me.

“It was a put-together team – we lost Scott Hogan in the warm-up, lost Rushian Hepburn-Murphy yesterday, which was disappointing. It’s the first home game we’ve probably gone into where we may be the underdog if that makes sense, so we had to show a different side to us, but our work ethic today was really good.

“At 3-0, it looks like its ok, but I’m experienced enough to know if they get the next goal, nerves play a part, then they throw the kitchen sink at us. Fortunately, we had just enough to hold on.

“On another day, I’d like us to have a lot more control of the ball in the second half, as we just give it away, but that’s what pressure and nerves sometimes does to you. But I’m still pleased with the result, and on the back of winning last week, winning at home is a good feeling.”

The late withdrawal of Hogan saw him replaced in the team by Laurence Maguire, with the Dons moving from a planned 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 at the last minute. Warne said this was a reversion to the system deployed against Shrewsbury the week before, and that he was happy the team of players he had was good at taking on information.

He said, “We did play that system last week so it wasn’t too difficult for them, but it is good. I joke about how coaches can overcomplicate the game at times but the shape is only one part of it. You’ve still got to run, tackle, pick a pass, mark your man on a set piece and all that, but it’s impressive. They are really good students.

“I do feel like they retain information really well from last week and they should take massive credit from today.”

The goal that saw the Dons make it 2-0 came after a spell of Gillingham pressure, and Warne said he was pleased that his side were able to take the game’s momentum away from the Gills at a crucial stage of the contest.

He said, “There’s no bad time to score a second, but that’s a big part of it. If you look at the waves of the game, we were on top, they were on top, and we scored right at their peak when they were on top. If they get their goal and it’s 1-1, that changes the outlook of the game. I thought we missed a few other really good opportunities which would’ve taken the lead a bit further away from them, but it was a good time to score and helped settle us down a little bit.”

Victory saw the Dons return to winning ways at Stadium MK after losing their previous 3 games in League Two at home, and Warne added he felt it was a deserved victory for his side.

He said, “It does seem a long while. Initially, when we were 3-0 up, I was heartbroken we lost our clean sheet and then all of a sudden it goes from that to only 2 minutes left.

“They score one and suddenly it’s completely different. But it is good to win, and good to win at home. We’ve been reasonably good on our travels but disappointing at home and today, which really pleases me, it was when it was a bit of psychological warfare. If they sunk in themselves and thought it was not our day playing at home or its all going against us, they could’ve easily sunk and thrown away points. But they didn’t. They stood up, took it on the chin and deserved the 3 points.”