Winning was all that mattered for Dons boss Manning

MK Dons 2-1 Port Vale
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It might not have been their best performance of the season, but Liam Manning was delighted to get monkey off his back as MK Dons secured their first league win of the season.

A Bradley Johnson double, one in each half, secured the points at Stadium MK on Tuesday night, though a stoppage time Ellis Harrison header made it more nervous than it needed to be later one as Dons held on.

A far cry from the performance shown against Sheffield Wednesday a couple of weeks ago, but a huge step forwards from the dismal 3-0 thumping at the hands of Ipswich on Saturday, Manning said the only thing that mattered on Tuesday was getting the result, scoring goals and getting points on the board by any means necessary.

“It's massive for the players,” he said. “They work so hard in such an intense programme and we're light on numbers. We've had a lot of challenges this season already with the injuries. But we can't get carried away, we have got to focus on doing it again on Saturday.

“The players have had a tough start with so much change and transition, and we knew the first three games would be difficult. You could see we were a bit edgy and nervous in the first 20 minutes but we settled a bit after the goal.

“We were the cause of our biggest problems in the first 20 minutes, we lacked control and turned the ball over too easily. There moments we controlled the game even without the ball.

“We could have done without that at the end - we were all edgy and nervous. The lads know we have to and we will play better, but we did what we needed to do to win tonight.

“It's so important for the players to get that first win and hopefully now we can take it into the weekend.”