Paul Warne hails four-goal Aaron Collins after MK Dons hammer Doncaster
Callum Paterson and Marvin Ekpiteta were also on the scoresheet for the home side.
MK Dons boss Paul Warne hailed Aaron Collins after he scored four in a 6-1 win over Doncaster Rovers.
Collins struck just two minutes in when he drilled home from outside the box, and added another 20 minutes later having received Ryan Wintle’s through-pass before threading home.
Doncaster replied after 64 minutes through Jordan Thomas but Collins sealed his hat-trick in the 69th minute when he cut inside and hit a firm strike that beat Tommy Simkin.
Collins then grabbed his and the Dons’ fourth seven minutes later from Ben Wiles’ cross, before late strikes by Callum Paterson and Marvin Ekpiteta secured the Dons’ fourth win in five matches.
After the game, Warne reserved special praise for his top scorer.
He said: “Sixteen goals before November is not really the sort of thing that happens often in professional ranks.
“His game is excellent, he’s a constant threat, he’s quicker than he looks, his finishing is really clean and no one can ever really argue if he shoots as they do go in.
“The first goal was good, the third goal was the biggest goal if that makes sense as it put the ease in the stadium, like we were back in control. And then he got four and he said to me that if you kept me on, I’d have scored five. So I’m really pleased for him, but as always, its always a team game.
“First half, I thought Doncaster caused us some problems but we defended resolutely. But no injuries and the lads are confident, which is a powerful force.”
Doncaster boss Grant McCann took responsibility as his 250th game in charge of Rovers ended in a heavy defeat, making it four losses in five.
He said: “It’s not good enough from me. It’s on me, this result, and any sort of blame is on me. I put that team on the pitch today and we were 1-0 down within two or three minutes.
“We haven’t got it right and when you don’t get it right, you can get hurt in this league. That’s what we’ve done today.
“When a team is so much on top of you like MK Dons were, you need to rally around, keep a structure around you and defend properly and we didn’t.
“It was just a snowball effect that we couldn’t wrestle it back. We tried to make positive substitutions off the bench to get us back in the game but it wasn’t to be, and the personnel I put on the pitch today haven’t delivered and that was my responsibility. “