Dominating scorelines and winning games the only things that matter to Alexander

The old cliche says it’s a game of two halves, and it certainly was in MK Dons’ 1-0 win over Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

From a dominant and one-sided performance in the first-half at Stadium MK, which saw Dons leading through Mo Eisa’s seventh minute leader, a more gritty and determined second-half was needed as Tranmere upped their game at the break and sought out an equaliser.

They should have had one when Luke Norris hit the bar from five yards out, and Connor Jennings headed wide, but with Dons holding on for their second win of the season, with it they took top spot in League Two.

Not wholly fussed by the stark contrasts in the performances before and after half-time, Alexander said: “There will always be things to improve. But we're about dominating scorelines and winning games, and that's what we've done, in successive league games.

“We were absolutely excellent in the first-half, and I couldn't ask for much more apart from some clinical finishing to finish off some of our attacks and further our lead.

“We knew there would be a response from the opposition, they know how to come into games and they caused us problems. There were things we could have done better but we got the three points and that's the main thing.”

He continued: “Sometimes you have to play great football and create loads of chances to score one, sometimes you have to play with your backs to the wall and that's what it was like today.

“Tranmere went a bit more gung-ho in the second-half, they kept changing shape with their subs so it was hard to get a grip on what they were doing, and they've got a big lad up top who they can play into.

“There will be games where we play really well when we'll score goals like we did last week, then there will be games like today when we have to grind it out. And today we did that. But we deserved to win from the first-half performance.”