Paul Warne wants more from his squad despite MK Dons’ four-match winning run

Paul Warne was pleased after his in-form MK Dons side beat Crewe 3-1 at Stadium MK but insisted his team can play better.

The Dons made it four consecutive Sky Bet League Two wins, with the team now second in the table.

Will Collar opened the scoring in the 23rd minute as he received Marvin Ekpiteta’s pass and fired home.

Alex Gilbey then scored twice. His first came in the 40th minute as he converted Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s deflected cross, before Gilbey adding a second in the 57th minute when he thumped home Aaron Nemane’s pass.

Louis Moult bundled in from a corner late on, but Crewe slipped to back-to-back league defeats.

Warne said: “I do think we can play better at times but when you’ve got a lead, the opposition have nothing to lose and keep coming at you. Mostly, what they asked us, we had pretty good answers. We just got a bit more control midway through the second half.

“We got the goals at good times. There’s no bad times, but I’m pleased with the lads. They worked really hard today.

“In fairness to Crewe, they’re younger, possibly fitter, which kills me to say, they’re mobile, stretched us and asked questions at times, but the lads hung in there and come the end of the season, hopefully they’ll be three big points.

“There’s been some crazy results today and if anything sums up this league, it’s if you look today.

“There’s been a lot of sendings-off and freak results and it seems like anyone can beat anyone on their day. For us to go on this little mini-run is great.”

Crewe boss Lee Bell criticised his players, feeling they offered very little.

He said: “We’ve won six, lost six, drew one, bang in the middle of the table I think. Is that where we want to be and what we want to do – just be mid-table? At the minute, when I’m watching us, that’s about right for where we are.

“If you look at the start of the season, we were athletic and competitive, but we’re sort of slotting into a nice team where teams enjoy coming to play against us knowing they can get on top of us because we haven’t got the bit between our teeth that we’ve got to show again.

“If you’re not going to play well, which we’ve shown we can do, you compete, run around, cover the distance and leave something out there. My team hasn’t shown that.

“Whether they’re listening or not, I don’t know. They’ve all just told me they are and that they’re up for the fight. Let’s see if they are.”