Lawrence ‘could have had a hat-trick’ in Dons’ win over Walsall

Scoring his first career goal could have turned out to be a hat-trick for Henry Lawrence on Tuesday night against Walsall.

The on-loan Chelsea full-back fizzed a fierce shot over the bar in the first-half before opening the scoring just after the hour mark at the Poundland Bescot Stadium, cutting in from the left-flank onto his right-foot to fidn the bottom corner. He could have had another with a similar effort which landed on the roof of the net.

The 21-year-old, who has been seldom-spotted in a Dons shirt recently, admitted he was delighted with his goal and his performance in win, which helped Dons secure their spot in the next round of the Papa John’s Trophy.

“I was really pleased with the goal - I could have had a hat-trick tonight!” he said. “But I'm really pleased. Whenever I want to go out there, I want to help the team first and foremost but you always want to get forward and get goals and assists too. I was happy I could do that today.

“I was really pleased with my own performance. There are always things you can improve on, like in every game, but after not playing in a while, putting in a performance was really pleasing.”

With Dons desperately needing a positive and morale boosting performance after three straight defeats in League One, Lawrence said the win in the Midlands will give Dons confidence going into the Buckinghamshire derby with Wycombe Wanderers this Saturday.

He said: “It was a much needed performance and win to get the confidence back in the boys. We can take a lot of confidence from that, especially in the first half.

“It doesn't matter what the competition is - we want to come out and put in a good performance, win and we did that here. We want to get that ball rolling in the league now.

“It was very patient, we were keeping the ball and not rushing things, or forcing passes, we waited for openings and we had a few chances in the first-half - fortunately we took them in the second though.”