MK Dons progressed into the Quarter-Final stages of the Papa John’s Trophy as they ran out 2-0 winners over Northampton Town – an evening Regan Poole was delighted with.
Stephen Walker netted in both halves as Russell Martin’s side comfortably progressed into the final eight.
The Dons also stood tall defensively and limited Keith Curle’s side to very little chances as they kept their first clean sheet of 2021.
Poole was happy with the performance at both ends of the field and the endeavour from the whole side to ensure Dons didn’t concede.
“We’re delighted with the clean sheet and we’re delighted to be four unbeaten now – it’s real progress for us,” Poole told iFollow MK Dons following the final whistle at the PTS Academy Stadium.
“I’m really pleased with our performance, I thought we dominated from start to finish and we’re all happy to have progressed into the next round.
“We limited them to very little, and only had one or two shots on target. We defended well against Burnley the other day, and obviously, they had a few more chances but they're a Premier League side, what do you expect?!
“It would have been lovely to have two clean sheets in a row, but we're building and it's time to start climbing the league. Where we are in the table doesn't reflect how we play football or the team we are. We have to start showing how good we are.”
Ahead of Poole on Tuesday night was the classy Andrew Surman who controlled the tempo of the game superbly. The 34-year-old boasted a 91% pass competition rate in arguably his best game in a Dons shirt. Following the clash, Poole couldn’t help but admire his performance.
“Every time you give Surs the ball, you know we're not going to lose it. You can lend him the ball and he will keep it and give it back the other side. He gave us a real outlet, and even when they had a full press on, you can bounce it to him and he could get us out of it so many times.
“That deep-lying pivot, whoever it is, they do such a fantastic job and it helps us so much, it's our focal point.”
