Paul Warne content to see MK Dons beat Newport but felt display needed more goals

Paul Warne said he was happy to see MK Dons pick up a victory against Newport County but felt the display needed more goals.

Warne spoke after a 1-0 win over Newport, with Aaron Collins scoring the game’s only goal in the opening minute of the contest.

Speaking after the match, the MK Dons Head Coach praised Newport for making life difficult for his side but felt that his side missed enough chances to have a more comfortable afternoon.

He said, “I thought we started well, but then we played for 100 minutes today and didn’t score again for 98 and a half of them, which is disappointing. If we’d scored a second goal, it might have settled our play down a bit.

“In fairness to Newport, they came after us, made it difficult and pushed our wing-backs back with their front three, and fair play to them. But we had loads of good opportunities on counters, got through and were just waiting for the net to ripple.

“It always felt like one goal wouldn’t be enough, so I’m quite surprised to be talking to you with a win if that makes sense because I didn’t think one goal was going to be enough. They created a really good chance themselves which on another day, we’d drop two points. I don’t think we deserved to drop two points, but in football matches, a lot of times, you don’t get what you deserve.

“We only got one goal, obviously we missed a penalty and a few other gilt-edged chances, but overall I was reasonably pleased with the performance. I can’t say I was ecstatic, but it is about winning and we managed to win today when not being at our best against a team fighting and scrapping for every ball.”

Reflecting further, Warne said that the inability to grab a second made the atmosphere more nervy, but added he felt happy that the team were able to stop Newport from bombarding his side with multiple chances to equalise.

He said, “If we would’ve got the second goal, we can play with a bit more personality but it just felt a little bit edgy. That might just be me because I felt edgy on the side of the pitch but I’ve been involved in enough football matches to see a missed penalty and a team 1-0 up in the ascendancy ends up losing points. That was my fear. Congratulations to the lads – they defended well enough in the end when called upon with free-kicks, corners and the more random stuff in the game.”

The match was the first of two home games in four days against struggling sides for the Dons, with former Dons boss Scott Lindsey bringing his Crawley side to Stadium MK on Tuesday. Warne said he was anticipating a difficult game against a side that he felt could provide his side with problems.

He said, “I think it’ll feel completely different. Crawley will have a lot of the ball and they take a lot of risks with their shape, which is good by the way – I like the way they play. It’ll feel like a completely different game and they may have more weapons so if we give up any chances, they might take it.

“We can obviously cause them problems as well, but I do get that we go into it as potential favourites. They are a team that has a good result then a couple of bad ones in recent weeks, but on their best days, they’re very difficult to play against. We have to try and get them out of that mindset when they come here on Tuesday.”

Victory means the Dons remain in fifth place in League Two, but just one point from automatic promotion in a tight race, and Warne reflected that it was likely to be a full-on battle to the end of the season and that all his side could do was just win more matches.

He said, “Today, I do know Bromley and Notts County drew, Swindon lost, Cambridge and ourselves won, Salford didn’t play and Walsall didn’t win, I think. In the top six, more often than not, every week you win, everyone else wins. It’s just how it is. It’s more fun at the bottom six as if you win, it’s like you’ve won nine points, but you expect the top teams to win and I expect that to the very last game of the season. I’m not too concerned what other teams are doing – we’ve just got to keep winning and if we win another 8 or 9 games, we give ourselves a good chance and hopefully get closer to cementing a play-off position.

“The lads are desperately trying to get back into the top 3, and I think we’re only 2 points off second so we’re not that far away. You could win Tuesday night, results could go your way and we could be second, but you’ve still got 14/15 games after that. You don’t win promotions in February, but you do set yourself up nicely.”