Paul Warne pleased with points but felt MK Dons could've scored more against Swindon

Paul Warne was happy to see MK Dons pick up three points but felt his side could’ve scored more goals in a Boxing Day win over Swindon Town.

Warne spoke after a fine Aaron Nemane goal saw the Dons register a 1-0 win over the Robins at Stadium MK.

MK Dons did create and miss opportunities to make it 2-0, but Nemane’s goal was enough to grab the hosts victory in a contest between two promotion chasing sides, with the Dons moving up to 4th in the table and now one point off the automatic promotion places.

While he felt the Dons could’ve got another, Warne was still content to pick up the rewards.

He said, “Really positive. These Boxing Day games sometimes throw up a few anomalies and you’re not 100% sure what you’re going to get.

“Generally, I was really pleased with the energy we play with. I just thought we needed the second goal to make it a more comfortable ending, though we are value for money on the stress-o-meter. So I was pleased with the efforts we put in, I just think we needed a second goal.

“Swindon had a good chance first half and a good chance second half, apart from that, I don’t think they really laid a glove on us. I don’t think Craig (MacGillivray) made loads of saves. I just thought we probably edged it. That’s my honest opinion – two good teams trying to go for it, and the more they went for it, the more we had the opportunity to get a second on the counter. We probably squandered a few chances.”

Despite the win, Warne said that the final stages did have an uncomfortable feeling in the moment due to fears an equaliser could be plundered.

He said, “I kept thinking it was now, it was now and I can reduce my anxiety. But it didn’t feel like it was coming. The longer the game goes on, we’ve all watched football in our lives to know it takes just one cross into the box, Sanders heads it against the back of Marvin’s head, it drops to a centre-forward who spins, turns, goal and you wonder where that’s come from.

“The randomness of it all in the last 10 minutes made it more stressful but when I watch it back, I’ll probably think it was more comfortable than I thought. I just thought when we did break, we didn’t really end with winning enough corners, free-kicks or throw-ins.”

Victory against a Swindon side who are at the top end with MK Dons comes in a busy period for Warne’s side, who also face a Monday night game against Notts County, a New Year’s Day match at Colchester and a home meeting with Chesterfield. But Warne said he was happy winning the first of these games was a good start.

He said, “I looked at this that the next 4 games are, on paper, the 4 toughest games we’ve got for a while. If we come out of it with a certain number of points, which I’ll keep to myself, I said to the lads that if we have that total, we come to the New Year in great shape. It’s a good start obviously to win a home game, now we have another one, then we’ve got Colchester away, who are really in-form and look bang on it, then come back here for Chesterfield, which is also another tough game.

“I’m under no illusions but its good to beat the teams around you. When we come in and see results, because that’s the first thing you do and then I look at the teams my friends manage, but we look at the results and we see all the top 6 seem to have won.

“If you can pick up wins off the teams around you, it’ll help come the end of the year.”