Paul Tisdale praises MK Dons players after win against Newport

Posted Sunday, February 24, 2019 by PA

Paul Tisdale felt MK Dons fully deserved their 2-0 win over Newport as they continued their push for automatic promotion from League Two.

Second-half strikes from Ousseynou Cisse and Chuks Aneke were enough for MK Dons to take the three points and Tisdale was quick to praise his players.

He said: “It was a fully deserved victory and the scoreline says something about the way we have played. I am really pleased.

“At 1-0 it is never over and we were really trying to go and get that second goal, it was not just a case of settling for the one goal – we went and tried our very best to put more pressure on them.

“It was a really good game against a team who were never going to give up against us, they really put pressure on our danger area but well done to the defence. It was a really tough, robust performance and I am delighted.

“We’re developing and I have congratulated the team on their performance and the way they have gone about the game. That was a result and performance that pleases the manager because we have built our performance but also stopped them from scoring.”

The Dons could have taken the lead after 25 minutes when referee Sebastian Stockbridge pointed to the penalty spot after Conor McGrandles was fouled inside the box by Dan Butler’s clumsy challenge – only for Newport goalkeeper Joe Day to save Kieran Agard’s tame effort.

The opening goal came through the unlikely Cisse, whose first goal since August arrived when McGrandles’ cross was emphatically headed home by the unmarked Mali international.

Substitute Aneke added his 16th goal of the season late on as Tisdale’s men rounded off a comfortable victory.

Newport manager Michael Flynn believes the defeat has damaged his side’s play-off hopes but insists they will not give up hope.

He said: “I think we were a bit flat today. We have had a lot of the game and in the end our lack of quality has caught up with us.

“We huffed and puffed but we just were not at our usual dynamic selves and we chose a lot of the wrong options throughout the game.

“The goals we conceded were poor from our point of view, especially from a set-piece routine from them.

“We tried to change up our style of play in the second half but we did not have too many clear-cut chances and the ones we did have we did not take advantage of.

“This result has probably put paid to our chances of finishing in the top seven but you can never say never until it is mathematically impossible.”