Martin delighted with his side after promising Arsenal display

Though the 4-1 scoreline may suggest otherwise, Russell Martin was proud of his side's performance against FA Cup holders Arsenal at Stadium MK on Tuesday night.

Streaming live on YouTube to nearly 62,000 people at one stage, Dons were 2-0 down inside 10 minutes after goals from Mohamed Elneny and Eddie Nketiah. Rob Holding put into his own net to pull one back for the home side, but Mark McGuinness and Reiss Nelson completed the scoring towards the end of the second period.

Despite their sluggish start though, Martin said his first-team squad, which played for a little over an hour at Stadium MK, showed they had improved a lot since their 6-0 humbling at the hands of Norwich on Friday afternoon and showed they can mix it with anyone after giving Arsenal a stern test for long periods.

"I'm really pleased with everyone tonight," he said. "They did everything we asked, they pressed intently, got the ball back quickly, and we had periods of control. I'm disappointed with the goals but we're still ironing things out. It's another step in terms of where we want to get to. Loads to work on still but I'm really happy.

"Tonight shows me we learned a lot from the Norwich game. We haven't had a lot of time on the training pitch since then but the stuff we've shown them, discussed, they carried it all out. That shows how much belief they have in what we're doing. Hopefully, nights like tonight show we can be competitive against anyone.

"We got what we wanted physically, but mentally as well. We need to tidy up on loads of bits, but overall we can be really proud of how we approached it.

"Often, when you play Premier League teams, the only way to earn a bit of respect is to work hard to earn it. The Arsenal players will leave here thinking we're a good team with good players and that we're hard to play against."