Dons were read the riot act by Manning at half-time at Lincoln

After a first half which saw MK Dons trailing 2-0 to Lincoln City, head coach Liam Manning ‘lost it’ with the players on Boxing Day, Scott Twine admitted.

The Imps, who had not kept a clean sheet all season and had only won twice at home all term, raced to a two-goal advantage after just eight minutes thanks to a Warren O’Hora own goal and a bizarre penalty which saw Daniel Harvie pick up the ball when he thought he had been fouled.

Though Dons would carve the more chances than the hosts before the break, Hakeeb Adelakun missed a sitter to make it 3-0 which surely would have put the game to bed long before the interval.

Twine said Manning showed his angry side at half-time at Sincil Bank, and it certainly worked, with the 22-year-old netting on the hour mark before Matt O’Riley equalised with 15 minutes to go. Twine would then win it, via a Regan Poole deflection, as the clock struck 90 minutes to complete an unlikely turnaround.

Speaking afterwards, Twine said the head coach was right to read Dons the riot act after they failed to live up to expectations in the first half.

“He lost it with us which we fully expected and fully deserved,” he said. “At half time, it's usually just tactical adjustments, but we had to fight for pride. We knew one goal could change it, that we had the quality to go on and win it and that's what we did.

“The first half was silly. We made silly mistakes, we weren't together as a team, and when we had the ball we weren't ruthless enough, we were sloppy in possession and we got punished for the silly errors.”

“We've come from behind in a lot of games this season and we're a dangerous team. We look like scoring goals.”