MK Dons Head Coach Paul Warne was pleased with his players’ efforts as they recorded a 5-0 win over Cheltenham Town at Stadium MK.
Warne spoke after a comprehensive home win, with Jack Sanders, Alex Gilbey, Callum Paterson, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Aaron Nemane scoring the goals.
The result was the Dons’ biggest home win since a 5-0 home win over Walsall at Easter 2024. It was also the first time Warne had overseen a win at Stadium MK since taking charge, having previously overseen 3 goalless draws since taking the job at the end of last season.
The result saw Warne say he was happy the team kept going in order to rack up the goals and to keep Cheltenham from becoming the first team since Warne took over to score an away league goal at Stadium MK.
He said, “It’s really pleasing. Another clean sheet, which was always a fear that the longer the game went on that if they get a chance and score, we’d be disappointed if we lost our clean sheet record today.
“So I’m really pleased. I thought we started well. Pato hit the post early, which would’ve been a great start to the game. Sometimes in them games, you just need the first goal and the game becomes more comfortable.
“We’d seen Cheltenham play in their previous games pretty resolute and they got a good win in midweek, so we knew they’d be pretty confident. We just moved the ball forward really quickly and made really positive passes forward to create chances. As a group, we’re pretty pleased and now we need to go again in 3 days time.”
Warne also commented that he felt happy the way the team played was closer to what he was looking for as an overall package.
He said, “It looks a little more like my team as we’ve got pace in it. I always want to try and play forward, put crosses in, get touches in the penalty box and shots. That’s how I want to play and how I think the modern game should be played in my opinion.
“We’ve got a really good athletic group and in the way the scoreline went, I had full trust in my bench so could make changes and give players a rest to go again. It was a pretty perfect day – no injuries, no issues and players coming back.”