Pragmatic Warne eager not to dwell too much on Dons defeat to Barnet
The MK Dons head coach spoke after his side’s first defeat since New Year’s Day
There was an air of disappointment that MK Dons saw their 14-game unbeaten run come to an end on Saturday, but head coach Paul Warne wants his side to move on swiftly.
The 3-1 reverse to Barnet is the first time Dons have tasted defeat since New Year’s Day, and their first league loss at Stadium MK since September, with goals from Danny Collinge, Kabongo Tshimanga and Idris Kanu seeing the Bees cancel out Jon Mellish’s seventh minute opener.
Dons also missed a penalty through Rushian Hepburn-Murphy as their run came to an end with a whimper.
With a trip to promotion chasing Salford City next Saturday for Warne’s side, the boss was keen for his side to quickly move on from their first reverse since January.
“We won’t go away hugely disappointed,” he said. “We know the reason we conceded the goals, and we’ll meet next week and build for the next game.
“I’ve lost loads of games as a manager and this doesn’t feel like the worst defeat. I still see a big fight in the group.
“If we’d have gone to the final day of the season unbeaten, it would’ve been pretty good! At this time of year, pressure mounts, things don’t always go your way, and I don’t want the lads to have any negative thoughts. We just weren’t good enough today to win, and in the last three months, I think I’ve only said that once.”
He continued: “We created a few half-chances but it never really felt like we had enough of a game to get anything out of it. I don’t think we were really poor, I don’t think the score reflected it, but we let ourselves down on the duels.
“Maybe we didn’t do enough to win the game, maybe a draw would have been a fairer outcome, but our finishing wasn’t as clinical as theirs.”