Paul Warne pleased to see MK Dons edge League Two promotion-rivals Swindon

Paul Warne was pleased to win a clash between two of League Two’s promotion contenders as MK Dons edged a 1-0 victory over Swindon at Stadium MK.

The game’s only goal came after 17 minutes after Aaron Nemane picked up the ball, cut inside and scored with a fine strike from range.

Swindon’s best chances to equalise saw Paul Glatzel’s strike blocked on the line before Jamie Knight-Lebel had a first strike saved and a rebound hit the side-netting.

Aaron Collins, Jack Sanders, Alex Gilbey and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy all missed chances for a second goal, but victory lifted MK Dons up to fourth to sit just one point behind their Boxing Day opponents.

Warne admitted he would have been happier with a second goal, but was pleased to win, saying: “Really positive. These Boxing Day games sometimes throw up a few anomalies and you’re not 100 per cent sure what you’re going to get.

“Generally, I was really pleased with the energy we play with. I just thought we needed the second goal to make it a more comfortable ending, though we are value for money on the stress-o-meter.

“So I was pleased with the effort we put in, I just think we needed a second goal.

“Swindon had a good chance first half and a good chance second half, apart from that, I don’t think they really laid a glove on us.

“I don’t think Craig (MacGillivray) made loads of saves. I just thought we probably edged it.

“Two good teams trying to go for it and the more they went for it, the more we had the opportunity to get a second on a counter.”

Swindon boss Ian Holloway felt his side’s performance had been good enough to get something and would now focus on finding improvements.

He said: “Today the performance was a little bit better than ones we’ve gone and won with, but that’s football for you.

“If you saw the two teams coming in at the end, I’d have rather been the other one, but that’s the way it is.

“I still can’t believe we didn’t score in the first half – even the scoreboard put it 1-1.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to win and we didn’t win. Well done to them, we’ll just have to take it on the chin and see what we can do.

“They’ve caught three points up on us. We’d been four points ahead. This is the nature of it – it’s a race, a marathon, and it won’t be over next week or the week after.

“We’ve got to be there and I’m sure we will be somewhere in that race at the end, seeing if we can sprint across the finish.”