Excellent Sorinola stars amidst contract dilemma

The distractions of his contract saga have threatened to detract from Matthew Sorinola s breakout season at MK Dons, but Russell Martin was delighted with the youngster's input during the 3-2 win over Accrington on Saturday.

Martin cited outside influences impacting on the 20-year-old's capabilities of being in matchday squads recently, with a contract offer so far going unsigned to retain the wing-back beyond the summer.

Since 'having his head turned' in January, Sorinola has had limited runouts for Martin's men, but he put in crosses for all three of Dons' goals on Saturday - including the 93rd-minute winner for Matt O'Riley.

With Sorinola looking back to his best at Stadium MK, Martin said it has made the last month so frustrating for him, but the wing-back is showing all the signs of living up to expectations again.

"He's done so much good stuff in a breakthrough season," Martin said. "That's why everything in January has really frustrating because we felt he was getting somewhere and kicking on, and it has stalled a bit. Luke has spent a lot of time on the training pitch with him one-to-one. Matty is a fast learner, he has a great attitude and hopefully he can produce more of that.

"The first one was brilliant – it's something he and the skipper spoke about. Deano recognised it was on, and it's brilliant Matty has listened. And then it was two really good deliveries after that – it's something we've worked on so I'm really happy for him. He was good on Tuesday and excellent today.

"We'd like to have him on the pitch a bit more than we have, but things have transpired not to help him, but he's reacted well. His attitude in training has been excellent recently, he's been worth his place in the team. We need more performances from him, we needed more end product and he gave us that today."