Reaction to opposition changes is too slow, admits Dons' scorer Dean

Striker Max Dean said MK Dons fell short of their standards in the second-half in their defeat to Morecambe on Saturday.

Dons dominated the opening 45 minutes at Stadium MK, and saw Dean end a four-game goal-less run inside the opening two minutes when he fired the home side ahead. The 19-year-old had two more great chances to further extend the lead and potentially put the result beyond reach of Morecambe, but was denied by Archie Mair in the Morecambe net with two terrific stops.

Despite their control of the first-half though, Dean admitted Dons went off the boil after the break, and were pegged back when Jacob Bedeau scored six minutes after the restart before Charlie Brown's winner in stoppage time secured the points for the visitors.

Speaking afterwards, Dean said Dons are slow to react when teams change approach at half-time and that they must be quicker in adapting in the future.

"In the first-half, we controlled the game and we were happy," he said. "But they changed it up at half-time, and we have to be better at adapting when they change their approach. There were positives to take from the first-half, but we had to fix up in the second-half.

"I think they pressed us more, and they needed a reaction after the first-half, I'm sure they'll have been told at half-time. But looking at us, we weren't good enough at all, we were too shy on the ball. That we have to improve."

His goal, coming after less than 90 seconds, was the perfect start for Dons and was a typical Dean strike, coming quickly and on the turn to catch the keeper cold. His 12th goal of the season, and his third against Morecambe, was not enough to win the game, though the former Leeds United man was pleased to end his run without finding the net.

He added: "It's always nice to score, it helps the team. You don't want to go on too much of a drought, you want the goals to keep coming, so I was happy with it. When you don't have much time to think, I like those chances because I feel like I can think quicker than the defender, hit it on the turn and found the bottom corner.

"I scored twice against them in the last game as well, so it was nice to get the goal but the result was not what we wanted."