Johnson relieved his goals could help Dons to first win of the season

“I've always been told if you don't shoot, you don't score,” Bradley Johnson said after his brace saw MK Dons pick up their first points of the season with a 2-1 win over Port Vale on Tuesday night.

His goals came at important times for the side - the first 11 minutes before the break as the game threatened to fizzle out in the run up the half-time, while the second found the back of the net with six minutes to go.

That goal proved to be even more vital when Ellis Harrison headed a goal back for Vale in the third minute of stoppage time as Dons clung on at the end to secure the points.

“That first goal settled us,” said Johnson afterwards of his first strike - a clean effort from 25-yards into the bottom corner. “I got my head up, saw the corner was open and I tried to just pass into it. I was a bit surprised it went in, but thankfully it did.”

While that opener had an air of class about it, the second was all about brute force as he smashed a lot, hard free-kick into the bottom corner late on.

He said: “When you're close to the edge of the box, it's hard for a free-kick taker to get it up and over the wall. I said to Kempy let me smash it and it went in again. We were going for the second goal, and it gave us a bit of a cushion. The last five minutes we made everyone hold their breath but we dug in to get the win.”

Johnson admitted the players let everyone down during the 3-0 defeat to Ipswich last weekend - a result which saw Dons drop to the bottom of League One. But victory this coming Saturday against Accrington Stanley, who visit Stadium MK, could mark a huge turnaround in just seven days.

“Games come thick and fast. There will be spells when we don't play well and win, or play well and we don't win. It's down to us, me, Skip and the management team to keep everyone level, keep confidence up. We've got a terrific group here and we were good in patches but things look positive.

“Three points is massive, but we will look at the performance. We knew we'd pick up a win sooner rather than later because we're a good team, but we have to keep going now and get more points.”