Sheridan: Dons couldn’t live with us after half-time

JOHN SHERIDAN had no doubt Athletic’s display against MK Dons was worthy of all three points.

Sheridan’s men kept up their 100-per-cent Boundary Park record after previously beating Millwall 4-3 and Cheltenham 4-0.

The manager said: “We definitely deserved it, especially for our second-half performance.

“It was a good game between two decent sides, but I’m very pleased with the way we went about our job.

“Teams make it difficult when you are top of the league, but the way we went about getting the right result was excellent.

“MK Dons will do well in this division because they have pace on the break and are playing with lots of confidence, but after half-time they couldn’t live with us.

“We got off to a great start with the goal by Lee Hughes, and he made a difficult chance look very easy.

“It wasn’t easy at all, but that was a really excellent finish and it showed what Hughesy is all about. He gives you that quality.

“MK Dons came back into it and the game might have been different if they had scored with their penalty, so that was an important save by Mark Crossley.

“They had one or two more little chances, but we stayed solid at the back and we were always a threat going forward.

“At half-time I told the lads they could raise their game, and they did it by upping the tempo and playing some really good football.

“The MK Dons ’keeper made two wonder-saves from Hughesy and Lewis Alessandra, but I’m pleased for Mark Allott to score the second.

“Mark just gets on with his job, and what I like is that he performs like that in training every day of the week.

“He’s experienced now, and he’s a good footballer who puts the work in even when he isn’t playing well.

“There were good performances from quite a few of the lads, and I was pleased to see them taking responsibility when we were trying to finish things off near the end.

“And our home form is going to be very important, so it’s good that we are doing something to get the crowd excited.

“We are creating lots of opportunities, but there are a few things we need to work on so that’s what will happen during the week.

“It’s my job as manager to look for the faults, which is what I’m doing to make us a better team.”