Second-half performance against Dons pleased Bournemouth boss Parker

Scott Parker told his side to up their game in the second half against MK Dons on Saturday, culminating in a 5-0 victory at the Vitality Stadium.

Dons looked a decent match for the Cherries in the opening half on the south coast, with Scott Twine and Tennai Watson forcing saves from Mark Travers, but David Brooks' opener 10 minutes before half time was the difference between the sides.

The second half saw the Championship side flex their muscles though, with Dominic Solanke scoring two minutes after the restart to double their advantage and put the game out of Dons' reach. Further strikes Philip Billing, Christian Saydee and a second for Brooks completed the rout as mistakes began to creep in for the visitors, allowing Bournemouth to cruise into the second round of the Carabao Cup.

"I’m really pleased overall," Cherries boss Parker told the Bournemouth Echo. "Elements of the game that I didn’t like, elements that we need to improve and get better at and then elements which I really liked and enjoyed us.

"A 5-0 win, clean sheet, five goals. But I think overall, still a lot of elements we need to improve and get better at, certainly.

"The intensity of our game, second half, was where it needed to be. "I thought first half at times it wasn’t the case. I thought we lacked a little bit of intensity about us, playing against a possession-based team that really want to dominate the ball. You want to sit off and give a yard, it can become a long night.

"Like I will do for the majority of this season, I wanted us to take the game to the team, assert pressure on them through the intensity of our game.

"At half-time I needed to address that really. We came out in the second half and scored within a couple of minutes of that and then was really front foot and pushed on from there, so that was good."