Our most complete performance - Tisdale

Kieran Agard's goal on the stroke of half time was enough to separate the sides, but there were chances galore to put the game to bed. Rhys Healey hit the bar, Chuks Aneke hit the post and Joe Walsh had an audacious flick denied by Cobblers keeper David Cornell as Dons forced the issue but simply could not put the game to bed.

Fortunately, it was a pleasant headache to have for Tisdale, against a Northampton side who could not knock down the Dons defence, who are now over 400 minutes since conceding their last goal.

In front of nearly 10,000 supporters at Stadium MK, there were few who could argue against the result, and for the home fans, after nearly three years of toil and trouble, have a team in the habit of winning.

Tisdale said: "We were very robust from set plays, got a goal from a set play, we played some great football, we attacked and fluency too. I want to be more clinical in front of goal, we're working on that, but it's one of those situations where it has been a few weeks where we haven;t quite scored enough goals. Once one or two go in, the floodgates will open. It's a confidence thing, we just need to stroke it home. It's a nice problem to have.

"I can't believe it only ended 1-0, there were more goals in that game. But we defended really well, and we can afford to be attack minded when we have a defensive unit like we do who are blocking everything and playing so well at the back. They're doing so well, four clean sheets in a row."

Their fourth clean sheet in a row has helped Dons pick up 12 points from 12 - a sign of the dramatic improvement to the back line since Tisdale's arrival.

"We started the season with a few topics on our agenda," he continued. "One of them was toughening up our back line and defend our box well. We've put a lot more work into that than at the attacking end. The latter is something we're working on now. It's about clarity, understanding the value of a clean sheet and strong, decisive defending."