Danny Cowley believes Sincil Bank crowd was the difference during MK Dons win - 7M sport

Danny Cowley believes Sincil Bank crowd was the difference during MK Dons win



Posted Sunday, September 23, 2018 by PA

Danny Cowley believes Sincil Bank crowd was the difference during MK Dons win

Danny Cowley hailed the impact of the Lincoln supporters after his side produced a superb comeback victory against MK Dons.

Rhys Healey opened the scoring after 64 minutes to put the Dons ahead but Shay McCartan equalised eight minutes later when he smashed home John Akinde’s knockdown.

And captain Jason Shackell headed home Bruno Andrade’s corner in the the fifth minute of added time to send the crowd wild.

Prior to the game, Cowley had called on the home fans to get behind the team against one of their promotion rivals.

And the manager felt they played an instrumental role in the victory, which came in front of Sincil Bank’s biggest crowd of the season of more than 9,000.

“I thought the supporters were brilliant today,” said Cowley. “Before the game you could feel it and, particularly when they scored, they stayed right with us.

“Our supporters can go home really happy knowing that they’ve had a big influence on proceedings.

“I want to see that from the fans week in, week out, it’s doesn’t matter who we’re playing because we haven’t got a divine right.

“When it’s like that, it’s never 11 versus 11. When there’s so much atmosphere and will in the stadium, it makes it really powerful.”

The result – the Dons’ first defeat of the season in the league – saw the Imps send another message of intent to the rest of League Two.

Cowley was delighted with the way his side overcame Paul Tisdale’s well-drilled side.

“MK Dons are a really good team. As I’ve said before, if you finish above them, you’ll have a really successful season,” Cowley added.

“I thought we played right at the top of our game in the first half and had good control. We were just missing the final action.

“In the second half, Paul Tisdale made some good subs and they changed their system.

“That gave us some problems and they were more of a threat on the counter-attack in the second half, but we did well. They were so difficult to break down so we had to patient, which I thought we were.

“We had loads and loads of set-pieces – as many as I can remember during my time here – but we didn’t execute them well.

“We actually went off the game plan for one which led to their goal. They (set-pieces) were atrocious up until the 94th minute.

“But the response was great. If you want to be a successful team, you’ve got to be able to win when you go behind, win late, score goals from set-pieces and score ugly from inside the six-yard box.

“I think we did all of those today which was really pleasing for us.”

Dons boss Paul Tisdale was devastated with the result but did acknowledge an improved performance from his side.

“It’s gut-wrenching. We all feel down about it, but the reality is the performance was better than the last couple of games,” Tisdale said.

“We were trying to win it, our style got more positive, but it came down to fine margins at the end, which make a difference against a team like Lincoln.

“I’ve made three or four changes of style in the last two or three games because I’m searching for something that clicks. We’ve got to go through that.

“In the end, we were facing a team who are top of the league and we looked like we could win it.

“We wanted to be unbeaten coming out of today, but we wanted to do that with a win, not a draw.

“There was progress but ultimately we walk away with nothing and it’s a disappointing day. We just have to pick ourselves now and go again on Tuesday.”

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