Drawing a line under Dons’ slow second-half starts

Slow starts to the second half looked to have been overcome recently during Dons’ rampant 15-match unbeaten run, but the trait apearaned to rear it’s head against at Oxford United on Tuesday.

Dominant at the Kassam Stadium in the first half, Dons allowed the U’s to get back in the game and to eventually win it through Billy Bodin’s late strike - the only goal of the game. It meant back-to-back defeats for Dons for only the second time this season, having done the same in October.

Liam Manning has spoken plenty about learning experiences for his young squad this season, and he said after gathering the team on their return to training yesterday (Thursday), he hopes his players have drawn a line under their recent slip-ups.

“We had a really good meeting on Thursday about what we've learned from it and what we'll do differently next time to flip the result,” he said. “After that meeting, we drew a line under it and moved on - we can't carry the disappointing into the rest of the day.

“The lads are self-aware and their reflection is really close to what the staff saw and thought so it was easy to have an open conversation with them about it.”

On the issues surrounding momentum shifts at the break, he said: “There have been a few games this season where we’ve seen that happen. Oxford didn’t have a shot in the first half, and we had so many great chances.

“We looked so dangerous, but of course the opposition will change in the second half and we cannot play the same game. We had to adapt, problem-solve and think. They were more aggressive, committed bodies higher and went man-for-man, took more risks. We have to look at how to manage those situations.”

While that second half will be the main takeaway from the game, Manning insisted his side looked at their absolute peak in a dominant first 45 minutes at the Kassam Stadium.

He continued: “We did so many good things and positive things against Oxford in the first half - it was right up there with the most enjoyable halves I’ve seen. We want to take that control and quality into the game tomorrow, and then adding a few bits to get the final result.

“We weren’t far away the other night, it was so close to being exactly what we needed.”