Surman and Sorinola stand-out in win over Cobblers

Andrew Surman had his best game in an MK Dons shirt on Tuesday night against Northampton Town.

The 34-year-old returned to the side after missing Saturday's penalty shoot-out defeat to Burnley in the FA Cup, playing in the vital defensive midfield position and showed every bit of his experience at the PTS Academy Stadium.

Surman slotted into the role, which has earned Jordan Houghton and David Kasumu plaudits since Russell Martin took over as manager in November 2019, excellently as he broke up play, made timely interceptions and limited Northampton to barely any opportunities on goal during the 71 minutes he was on the field.

With his current deal at Stadium MK is up this month, assistant manager Luke Williams praised Surman for his attitude since signing for the club in November, saying: "For me, it is a real honour to work with him. For him to come here, it's not the most glamorous compared to Premier League fixtures, but he's applying himself for us in that manner and it speaks volumes for his personality."

Regan Poole was also full of praise for the midfielder, highlighting the importance of the role Surman was deployed in.

The Welshman said: "Every time you give him the ball, you know we're not going to lose it. He's a reassurance in there. You can lend him the ball and he will keep it and give it back the other side. He gave us a real outlet, and even when they had a full press on, you can bounce it to him and he could get us out of it so many times.

"That deep-lying pivot, who ever it is, they do such a fantastic job and it helps us so much, it's our focal point."

While there were no poor performers against Northampton, another stand-out was Matthew Sorinola who was a constant problem for the hosts playing on the right-hand side.

Williams added: "He's a young guy, learning while he's out there and it's really difficult. He's managing to get over some tricky performances at times and bounce back quickly. He wants to keep learning."