Warne fumes at first-half performance as Dons rescue point at Barnet
The MK Dons head coach spoke after the lively 2-2 draw with Barnet on Saturday
Paul Warne said his side were fired a real warning shot after their dismal first-half performance nearly cost them in the 2-2 draw with Barnet.
Slow out of The Hive compared to the Bees, Dons were 2-0 down in 28 minutes thanks to goals from Adam Senior and a Mark Shelton penalty. While Jack Sanders managed to pull one back for the visitors six minutes before half-time, it was a poor showing from Warne’s side, cheered on by more than 1,300 travelling supporters from Milton Keynes.
After shuffling his pack at the break, a rejuvenated Dons emerged for the second-half and got level through Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, and had chances to win it, while Barnet twice had strikes ruled out as the game ended all square.
Speaking afterwards, Warne felt his side did not warrant all three points against Dean Brennan’s men, and must take heed of the warnings coming their way after being punished for their sloppy start.
“To end up getting a draw out of it, and to nearly win it pleases me but we cannot afford to start games like that,” he said. “We rode our luck a couple of times, and we got cut open a few times which is not like us either. It’s a warning to the dressing room. We cannot start like that. Barnet could have scored in the first few minutes, and we could have been three or four down at half-time, so we’ll take that.
“Over the course of the game, I don’t think we deserved all three points, a point is a fair share of a really competitive League Two game.”
He continued: “I’m happy with a point. It’s always better if you play at your best, and I don’t think we started the game well. We didn’t defend crosses, we just didn’t compete, we didn’t get second balls. But when we went 2-0 down, we looked more like it.
“It felt to me like we’d been promoted and this was the game after the season ended. We didn’t have enough cutting edge. We told them that at half-time. We just didn’t put enough forwards in our play.
“The second goal showed what we can do. I thought we’d then go on, and if we’d won 3-2 the football gods would be smiling on us.”