Holloway stunned at Swindon's missed chances in MK Dons defeat
The Swindon Town boss was annoyed with his team’s lack of cutting edge in Milton Keynes
Two gilt-edged chances going begging left Swindon Town boss Ian Holloway scratching his head as MK Dons left Stadium MK 1-0 winners on Boxing Day.
Trailing to Aaron Nemane’s brilliant solo-strike in the first-half, Paul Glatzel thought he had drawn the visitors level but saw Jack Sanders head against his own bar to keep him out, before Jamie Knight-Lebel somehow fired into the side netting from close range after seeing his second-half header denied by Craig MacGillivray.
Dons too had plenty of chances to further extend their lead, with Aaron Collins hitting the post, and both Alex Gilbey and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy coming close in the second-half.
And though even the Stadium MK scoreboards believing Knight-Lebel’s chance had drawn the visitors level, Holloway said he felt his side let themselves down with their finishing.
“We’ve had two instances where I can’t believe we haven’t scored,” he said. “They even put on the scoreboard that we’d scored. And I wish we had. We hit the side netting.
“That’s probably the best we’ve been with the ball in a couple of weeks. It's one of those things. It’s probably the best start we’ve had in a while. I thought we looked really sharp, really good, we were on top until the scored and it knocked us a bit.
“It was a great strike for their goal, but there were a couple of times we could and probably should have scored but we didn’t quite get our attacks right and it left us open for the counter.
“I’m disappointed with the final 10, 15 minutes but that was a half-decent performance away from home against a good team. We just have to get ready for the next one. It is what it is, let’s get on with it.”
Swindon travel to Cheltenham Town on December 29 before hosting Gillingham on New Year’s Day.