"Thrown away two points": Warne on late Chesterfield equaliser against MK Dons
The MK Dons head coach spoke after his side’s 1-1 draw with Chesterfield
Paul Warne cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines after seeing his MK Dons side concede a late equaliser away at Chesterfield on Saturday, drawing 1-1.
Good value for their first-half lead, courtesy of Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s second goal of the season, it took a late Tom Naylor header from a corner with four minutes remaining for Chesterfield to snag a point, denying Dons the chance to get back to winning ways after suffering back-to-back league defeats.
For Warne, the timing of the goal and indeed the nature of it - coming from a set-piece - were sources of annoyance s his side squandered the opportunity to pick up three points on the road.
“It feels like we’ve thrown away two points which is heartbreaking,” he said. “I want my teams to finish games off. We had to be brave enough to stand up and we did apart from one set-piece. If they were smoking us, picking us off and Craig (MacGillivray) was making save after save, I’d think differently but they didn’t ask much of us apart from set-pieces so that’s why it’s more disappointing.
“I wouldn’t have taken a point (if offered one before kick-off), we always set up to win but off the back of two defeats - one we didn’t deserve and one was one me, a point is better than none. You’ve got to stop the rot. I’m just hugely disappointed.”
Discussing his side’s performance, Warne continued: “In the first-half we did well, played really well, we looked good going forwards but just not good enough. I don’t think we were crisp enough in the final third, and we got into some good positions where we should come out with something. We needed that second goal.
“It was the same in the second-half, we just needed that second goal. The longer the game went on, they threw everything at us and honestly we weren’t strong enough to withstand it.
“I think we started the game well, we looked the more athletic team, a bit more dangerous on the break. When you’re on top, you have to score and then get another.”