Karl Robinson believes his side showed a different side to their game during the 1-0 win over Bolton Wanderers.
The Dons picked up their first ever Sky Bet Championship victory at stadiummk on Tuesday thanks to a second-half strike from Daniel Powel, a result which they earned despite spending large parts of the contest on the back foot – a rarity for a Robinson led side on their home turf.
“We’ve had to reshuffle our pack this summer so it’s going to take us a bit of time to find our real fluency again and that’s why I’m so happy when we get 1-0 victories at home,” Robinson told the media afterwards.
“We started okay and we didn’t concede any chances but they had a lot of the play. They had free-kicks and corners and they got into our box an awful lot, which doesn’t always happen here at stadiummk.
“The players learnt from Saturday and killed the game completely - they didn’t rush things and we tried to the deny any fluidity to the game when we didn’t have any.
“I told them to believe in themselves at half-time because we looked like we didn’t feel we belonged at this level. I told them that they’d earned their right to be here so go and show everyone how talented we are. For first 25 minutes of the second half we were more like us.”
He continued: “We knew in Daniel Powell and Sam Gallagher we had two players who could be game-changers and Powelly proved that with his performance and goal.
“It’s unlike us to go 4-5-1 but we knew we had players who could run and hit Bolton on the counter attack, which we almost did at the end - we probably should have made it 2-0.”
The victory over Bolton means the Dons have taken six points from their opening three games – a very good return for a side playing in the second tier of English football for the first time.
“This result will give us a bit of a boost. We’ve played four and won three which sounds a lot better than two wins out of four. It’s a positive for us going into two big league games before our international break.”
Robinson's Dons travel to Reading this Saturday for their first ever meeting with the Royals - tickets are priced from £25 for adults, £10 for 18-24 year-olds and £7 for under-17s, while season ticket holders can travel for just £9!
To purchase tickets click here, visit the Box Office at stadiummk/kiosk at thecentre:mk or call 0333 200 5343.
“We’ve had to reshuffle our pack this summer so it’s going to take us a bit of time to find our real fluency again and that’s why I’m so happy when we get 1-0 victories at home,” Robinson told the media afterwards.
“We started okay and we didn’t concede any chances but they had a lot of the play. They had free-kicks and corners and they got into our box an awful lot, which doesn’t always happen here at stadiummk.
“The players learnt from Saturday and killed the game completely - they didn’t rush things and we tried to the deny any fluidity to the game when we didn’t have any.
“I told them to believe in themselves at half-time because we looked like we didn’t feel we belonged at this level. I told them that they’d earned their right to be here so go and show everyone how talented we are. For first 25 minutes of the second half we were more like us.”
He continued: “We knew in Daniel Powell and Sam Gallagher we had two players who could be game-changers and Powelly proved that with his performance and goal.
“It’s unlike us to go 4-5-1 but we knew we had players who could run and hit Bolton on the counter attack, which we almost did at the end - we probably should have made it 2-0.”
The victory over Bolton means the Dons have taken six points from their opening three games – a very good return for a side playing in the second tier of English football for the first time.
“This result will give us a bit of a boost. We’ve played four and won three which sounds a lot better than two wins out of four. It’s a positive for us going into two big league games before our international break.”
Robinson's Dons travel to Reading this Saturday for their first ever meeting with the Royals - tickets are priced from £25 for adults, £10 for 18-24 year-olds and £7 for under-17s, while season ticket holders can travel for just £9!
To purchase tickets click here, visit the Box Office at stadiummk/kiosk at thecentre:mk or call 0333 200 5343.
