There are no easy games of football – MK Dons boss Paul Warne after cup win

Paul Warne admitted “there are no easy games of football” after MK Dons ground out a 2-1 win against League Two Swindon in the FA Cup.

The Dons took an early lead when Marvin Ekpiteta turned in Charlie Goode’s cross, before Aaron Collins then scored from Eli Campbell’s pass.

Swindon’s Aaron Drinan thumped home after the hosts could not clear, but MK Dons held on to win, much to Warne’s satisfaction.

He said: “We started really well and scored a couple of goals but then we went off it a little bit. We didn’t move the ball as quick as I would like and in fairness they tweaked their shape a little bit.

“I’d like a bit more but Swindon were hard to play against.

“The goal just before half-time changed things. There wasn’t a great deal in the game and as we only had a one-goal lead, there’s always a chance they might nick something.

“I’m just happy to go through. All these games are hard and you’ll see teams lose to ones below them in the league, one league below or two below. There are no easy games of football.”

Swindon boss Ian Holloway felt his side recovered well but admitted his disappointment.

He said: “It’s very disappointing. You get here, look at the ground and want your team to come out and think about what you’ve talked about, but we were 2-0 down within a few minutes.

“What pleased me after that was that we didn’t buckle, we didn’t fold, we got tighter to their people, had a few arguments about how they scored and then we grew into it and committed to what
we wanted to do.

“Overall, we need to believe in ourselves and I believe that it’s coming.

“I believe the understanding is coming, even though we let two soft goals in, and that’s what we’ve got to try and stop.”