Dele Alli admitted he was ‘speechless’ after netting his first career hat-trick in MK Dons’ 3-1 victory over Notts County.
The 17-year-old took his total for the season to six with a composed treble on Tuesday night, as he helped the Dons take the three points at Meadow Lane and close the gap on sixth-placed Peterborough United ahead of the weekend clash between the two sides.
Although there were many standout performances – Daniel Powell and Alan Smith in particular – Alli was the man who stole the headlines, but the teenage sensation was quick to praise his team-mates in his post-match interview.
Speaking to MK Dons Player, he said: “I’ve been getting the feeling that I’m close to scoring more because I’ve been getting higher up the pitch since I’ve played centre-midfield, but to get a hat-trick - I’m just speechless really.
“We needed the win and everybody knew that. As soon as they made it 2-1 we needed to kill it off and we did that in the end. We defended well and we’ve had a lot of games recently like this and we’ve managed them really well.
“We probably could have managed the game a bit better at times and not given away silly fouls but I thought we did that towards the end. We needed to get that third goal and we got it.”
The win sets up a mouth-watering clash with the Posh at stadiummk on Saturday, with the Dons just three points behind their play-off rivals following the midweek fixtures.
Karl Robinson’s side could, in fact, move into the top six with a two-nil victory but Alli insists the team are keeping their feet on the ground and treating the clash like any other.
He added: “We’re just taking every game as it comes - that’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’re going to keep doing. It’s just another game. We’ll focus on this result, work out what we need to better and take it into the next game.”
