Hepburn-Murphy warns against complacency despite Dons' warning shot
Goal-scorer Rushian Hepburn-Murphy believes MK Dons have sent out a warning after Saturday’s win
A warning shot has come from Stadium MK to the rest of League Two after MK Dons ran out emphatic 5-0 winners over Cheltenham Town, according to Rushian Hepburn-Murphy.
In control from the off at MK1, goals from Jack Sanders, Alex Gilbey and Callum Paterson in the opening 25 minutes effectively put the Robins to bed, before second-half strikes from Hepburn-Murphy and Aaron Nemane - both scoring their first for the club - completed the rout.
Still extremely early on, with just three games played, Dons moved up into third spot with their win, now behind Chesterfield and Crewe Alexandra who both have 100 per cent records at the start of the campaign.
But with big things expected of Dons this season, the win over Cheltenham will have the rest of the league sitting up and paying attention, according to the former Crawley Town man.
“Definitely, but we can’t get arrogant, we can’t think we’ve cracked it,” he said. “We have to put the performance behind us now, and move onto the next game, the game after that and the game after that.
“We’ve been knocking at the door and creating chances. We drew with Oldham and should have taken something from it, but it was the first game of the season, so there were teething issues. We’ve been saying in the changing room that someone is due a big scoreline and fortunately today it has happened, with five different scorers too.
“It’s another clean sheet for the boys, three games and still undefeated and a 5-0 win, we can’t be any happier.”
With the game effectively wrapped up after 25 minutes when Paterson roofed Dons’ third goal, it could have been easy for Dons to ease up but they continued to force the issue, and could have scored more, according to Hepburn-Murphy.
He continued: “Today we got five goals, and we could have got more as well.
“Football’s football - you can go 3-0 up and you can take your foot off the gas and the opposition can score two goals, then all of a sudden it’s panic stations and everyone is defending and they might nick another one.
“For us, we had to keep our foot on their neck and be ruthless at the top end of the pitch. It was a case of don’t be silly, just go and win the game.”