"I knew I had to make an impact," says Dons' match winner Seager

Ryan Seager did exactly what his manager told him to do as he scored the match winner in a 3-2 win over Rochdale on Saturday.
Ryan Seager celebratesRyan Seager celebrates
Ryan Seager celebrates

Seager came off the bench to net the winner five minutes from time with the match finely poised at 2-2 as both sides failed to hold on to first half leads.

Brad Inman fired Dale in front after eight minutes, only to be pegged back the first of Gboly Ariyibi's goals - the second coming four minutes before half time.

But Dons were pegged back just a minute after taking the lead by Matt Done as the sides went into the break at 2-2.

MK Dons celebrate Seager's winnerMK Dons celebrate Seager's winner
MK Dons celebrate Seager's winner

Seager's introduction midway through the second period saw him play up alongside Osman Sow, but it was a ball over the top from fellow substitute Ouss Cisse that allowed the on-loan Southampton striker to net his second of the season and win it for Dons five minutes from time.

"Coming off the bench, I knew I had to make an impact and I did," said Seager. "I had been struggling a bit of late, and we knew we had to bounce back after the performance on Tuesday and we did.

"The manager told me to go and play up alongside Os, and it worked because he was flicking a lot of balls my way.

"Sometimes you need that, a simple ball over the top of the defence to get you in. I think we outplayed them for most of the game anyway. They had a few chances but so did we, and we took ours to get the win."

MK Dons celebrate Seager's winnerMK Dons celebrate Seager's winner
MK Dons celebrate Seager's winner

Seager drew some criticism from his manager on Tuesday night's defeat to Peterborough as Neilson blamed mistakes at both end of the pitch for the 2-0 reverse. And the striker felt the team responded in the best way possible by beating Rochdale.

He added: "We had a long talk on Wednesday during the debrief and we had a long hard look at ourselves and we knew what we needed to do.

"It's frustrating but that's how it goes sometimes, when we click as a team fully, we'll get a lot of chances because we have a lot of creative players. It's only a matter of time before it all falls into place."

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