MK Dons boss Paul Tisdale welcomes 10-day break after busy festive period

Posted Wednesday, January 02, 2019 by PA

Paul Tisdale is looking forward to a 10-day break after his MK Dons side rounded off the busy festive period with a 6-0 win over Cambridge United.

The Dons started the new year with a resounding victory thanks to braces from Rhys Healey and Kieran Agard with further strikes through Chuks Aneke and Osman Sow to relieve the stress after three winless matches in the league.

“I’m looking forward to a bit of a break now, we have 10 days to regroup and it’s been a great way to start the new year off with this result,” said Tisdale.

“We really needed that today because we have had a tough couple of weeks – that sets off the new year nicely.

“Win, lose or draw, we wanted to see a performance that is more like us. We haven’t been ourselves in the last couple of games, and today the performance warranted the resounding result.

Despite the six-goal haul and home clean sheet, Tisdale saw fatigue in his side.

He added: “It was an attacking performance and I’m so pleased for everybody involved in the club.

“We weren’t faultless today by any means, but we took the most of our opportunities.

“I looked at the players in the first half and I realised that they were a little bit tired. We’ve played a lot of games in a short period, but scoring the goals today takes away a little bit of the stress and reminds everyone that we’re backing ourselves.”

Meanwhile Colin Calderwood was critical of the collective effort from his Cambridge team, but blamed himself for the result.

“It’s completely my fault what’s happened today and the team wasn’t up for it as they should have been,” said Calderwood.

“We didn’t last long enough in the game which is a horrible thing for any coach or manager.

“As a group, the effort wasn’t enough and it wasn’t what we wanted to start the new year with.

“We looked nervous and we didn’t deal with their crosses today and fundamentally we didn’t compete in all areas of the pitch.”

The defeat leaves Cambridge three points from the bottom of the League Two table, with only Macclesfield and Notts County on fewer points.

“It was a horrible situation for us today, we were out of the game very quickly which doesn’t help,” he added.

“They’re a good expansive team but a lot of their goals have come from crosses and poor defending – that’s a starting point for us to analyse the game.

“It was a terrific occasion for us to come and play in, but we made a right mess of being a good footballing team today.”