Dons’ performance did not warrant the win over Accrington, says Manning

Despite conceding from the penalty spot with 12 minutes to go, Liam Manning did not feel MK Dons deserved the win against Accrington Stanley on Saturday.

Leading through Ethan Robson’s wonderful 25-yard strike on the half-hour, Korede Adedoyin was sent sprawling in the area to allowSean McConville to level things up in the 78th minute, denying Dons the chance to win back-to-back games, while assuring Accrington’s third draw in their opening four games.

Though Dons were unlucky not to be 2-0 up at the interval after both Dan Kemp and Matt Dennis were denied off the line, it could have been a different story had Adedoyin not been denied by a brilliant save from Jamie Cumming after just two minutes.

On the whole, Manning felt a draw was about right, despite feeling frustrated at letting the lead slip.

“Looking at it, a point is probably fair. They had some really good chances to be fair, and we had a few as well. I don't feel we did enough to win the game.

“When you're 1-0 up in a tight game, you have to be brave and step up and go and grab the game, but we made it too much of a fight in the second half.

“We played some good football at times in the first half, more of what we wanted to see but we turned it over too cheaply as well.

“The lads are flat because they know what we're capable of, especially after we were leading as we were, but to take four points in a tough week is a positive. We now have to build on this run and look to improve.”

Like two weeks ago against Sheffield Wednesday, Manning was left annoyed with the officials, this time citing Tom Reeves as the reason the second half was so stop-start, preventing either side from really getting into any kind of flow.

He added: “I was frustrated with the referee's performance for both sides. He got a bit whistle-happy in the second half, with so many stop-starts and little free-kicks.

“You look at the Premier League and Championship, so much of the game is allowed to flow and you see the benefits of that. We couldn't get any momentum.”