Manner of victory 'didn't matter' as Dons end five-month wait for away win

The manner of victory did not matter much to Scott Lindsey as MK Dons picked up their first away win since April on Tuesday night, doing so thanks to an inflated 5-1 scoreline against Harrogate Town.

The last away win came, ironically, against Harrogate too, with five goals on that occasion as well in a 5-3 triumph in Yorkshire. This time, Dons were 3-0 up come the break thanks to goals from Tommy Leigh, birthday boy Joe White and Alex Gilbey as they looked to have the game sewn up.

Lindsey said his side played with an anxiousness in the second-half as they away win loomed, and they nearly let Harrogate in as the hosts took control of the game after the restart, but only pulled one back when the unlucky Luke Offord spun one past Tom McGill with 16 minutes to go.

Late goals through from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans and Sonny Finch - each netting their first for the club - flatted the score, moving Dons up to 14th in League Two but crucially ending the drought on the road.

“We needed a in tonight and it kind of didn't matter how we did it,” said Lindsey afterwards. “We scored some amazing goals as well. I'm really pleased with the players. Tommy has led the line fantastically well again. Five different scorers as well so I'm really happy.

“We played anxiously tonight, even though we won 5-1 and it sounds mad for me to say it, but we were conscious of the fact we wanted to put that away record to bed quickly. We tried really hard for it on Saturday, it wasn't to be, but we focused on it. We had meetings about it, the players had meetings about it but we wanted that monkey off our backs.

“The main objective was to win the game. But we looked anxious with the ball, we've got to get a balance. We've got to get some calm within the chaos, and play our dominant football.

“I felt it was a really good performance away from home against a good side, but I want more.”

He added: “There were moments where we were really good, but at times we got erratic.

“We were big on not conceding, but Harrogate put us under some real pressure in that second-half. We're disappointed to concede of course but we scored twice more and finished the game off so I can't complain.”