The MK Dons head coach was level-headed after his side’s defeat against Notts County

Paul Warne felt positive despite MK Dons’ late heart-break against Notts County on Tuesday night, with Tom Iorpenda’s 88th minute goal sealing a 3-2 win for the hosts at Meadow Lane.

In a thrilling five-goal encounter, Dons twice took the lead inside the opening 13 minutes, both courtesy of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing either side of a Matt Dennis stunner. But a mistake from Laurence Maguire gifted Alassana Jatta a second equaliser on 26 minutes before Craig MacGillivray let a header slip through his grasp before Iorpenda rattled home the winner with two minutes to go.

Despite the hectic nature of the game, which resulted in only Dons’ second league defeat since September 20, Warne said the level of performance from his side was reason enough to leave Nottinghamshire happy even though he felt they deserved something from the game.

“It’s absolutely fine,” he said afterwards. 2If that’s the level of performance, and we perform like that for the next 24, 25 games, we should be up around the top, where we want to be. It’s probably a good feeling to have.

“We’re not miles off it, there wasn’t much wrong. The lads had a right go, I think we were the better team and if we played that game another nine times, we’d not lose any of them. We didn’t quite get what we deserved tonight, we definitely didn’t deserve to leave without a point.

“Performances like we saw last week against Oldham, the week before against Swindon and tonight against Notts County, that’s how I want to see my team play. If that’s enough to get us up, that’s great.

Losing games is part of football. It’s ups and downs. Our intent to win games is brilliant. The way we ask them to play, we will lose some games.

“I’m happy with everyone in the dressing room, how they train, warm-up, how they rally around each other and how they’re disappointed to lose. That’s what champions do - they lose games, brush it off and go again and that’s what we’ll do.”

On the mistakes from Maguire and MacGillivray, Warne was quick to downplay their significance, adding: “(Notts County) scored a worldie, and we unfortunately gifted them two goals, which is unlike us, but it’s how it is sometimes. Mistakes happen, we dust ourselves down and look forward to the next challenge.

“In fairness to Craig and in fairness to Mags, I don’t want their confidence to be knocked. Craig comes for everything and has been amazing. Not every striker takes every chance. I want him to come for every ball, and if he drops two more before the end of the season, so be it. Sometimes it happens, they’re human beings.”