MK Dons manager Karl Robinson praised his players’ work-ethic after their 2-0 victory over third-placed Brentford on Easter Monday afternoon.
The Dons saw off the promotion-chasing Bees thanks to terrific strikes from Dean Bowditch and stand-in captain Stephen Gleeson, as the men from MK1 recorded back-to-back League victories for the first time in 2013.
And manager Robinson, whose side are now just eight points adrift of the play-offs, was keen to praise his team’s endeavor after a hard-fought afternoon of football at stadiummk.
The 32-year-old said: “It was a tough game. Brentford are a very good side and I’ve got tremendous respect for their team.
“With the players they’ve got and the quality that they possess, they’re as good as we’re going to come up against and so for our players to put in that amount of work today, given all our injuries and games, it’s incredible.
“Chris Lines, for example, had to play left wing in the second half, which just shows how thin we are. Adam Chicksen also had to have three injections in his foot before the game and we were initially told that he could only last for 40 to 50 minutes. He fortunately lasted the whole game and I think he deserves applause for that.
“We’re absolutely knackered. We’ve been through a lot this year, with all the injuries and suspensions, so it meant so much to us to get three points today and I think you could see that by the way we celebrated the two goals.
“They only had one clear cut chance today that I can remember and that was Bradley Wright-Phillips’ header in the first minute of the second half. We switched off and came out a little bit cold but apart from that I think we denied them chances so it was an important win for us.”
Prior to the Good Friday clash with Hartlepool United, boss Robinson admitted that anything less than four points from the two Easter fixtures would mean his side would miss out on a potential play-off spot come the end of April.
Fast forward three days and the Dons have now sit just three wins behind the top six having picked up maximum points from the weekend’s two games, and Robinson believes there is still hope of finishing amongst the play-off pack.
He added: “We’ve got an awful lot of games still to play and we’ve put ourselves in with a right good chance. It’s definitely still there for us.
“We will go to the end and we will keep working, it’s not in mine or the players make-up to quit. When we have our best players on the pitch we look a very, very good football team and we’ve not had that enough this year.
“Let’s see if we can put four of five back-to-back victories together to get us over the line. There’s tremendous confidence in the team now and hopefully we can take that into the Crawley game.
“We’ve got the players to do it, we’ve got the staff to do it and we’ve got the fans as well. It doesn’t feel like the end of the season with the weather being so cold but it’s almost over and I want to make sure we don’t let it fade out.”
