Mark Jackson plotting MK Dons climb up table after making winning start as boss

Posted Tuesday, December 27, 2022 by PA

MK Dons head coach Mark Jackson is confident he can push his new club up the League One table after his first game in charge ended with a 1-0 victory over fellow strugglers Forest Green.

The Dons recorded back-to-back league wins for the first time this season and brought up their first home league victory since August to leapfrog their visitors in the standings.

Daniel Harvie’s winner was not quite enough to lift them out of the relegation zone but safety is now within touching distance as they are now just one behind fifth-from-bottom Accrington.

Jackson said: “We had the ball for long periods of time.

“Yes we could have had them in better positions and done more with it but my job is to come here now and improve little things and develop that side of the game.

“You saw that towards the end of the game, where every single player was wanting to protect the goal.

“Every time that ball came in, we wanted to defend it, we wanted to get the first contact, we wanted to get the second contact and really put our bodies on the line to defend.

“We know what we need to try and do in the short term but we have got a long-term vision as well.

“With this group of players, the staff behind the scenes and I’ve seen first-hand the supporters, we can grow together and really start to be positive and move up the table.”

MK Dons goalkeeper Jamie Cumming had to perform heroics in the first half-hour, making saves from Baily Cargill, Oliver Casey and Josh March as the match remained goalless at half-time.

The hosts’ winner then came after 58 minutes when Josh McEachran’s corner was cleared as far as Harvie, who fired in a terrific strike from outside the area.

Forest Green boss Ian Burchnall believes Dons defender Warren O’Hora should have been sent off in the first half.

He said: “It’s a red card. I’ve seen it back, [Myles] Peart-Harris goes past the centre-half, they have a defender coming in to cover but Josh March is ahead of him, so I don’t see how he’s going to cover.

“It’s early in the game, the ref needs to make a big call, which he didn’t do.

“The easy thing is to book him but the law states ‘clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity’, which it was.

“He had to make the foul on the edge of the box otherwise it’s a penalty, so he came in early, he knew what he was doing.

“It’s a second-phase set-piece goal that they score from. I don’t think there was much in the game, to be honest, I don’t think a draw would have been unfair.”