Paul Warne declares happiness with first performance after opening MK Dons game

MK Dons’ Head Coach Paul Warne was content with his side’s performance as his first game as boss ended as a 0-0 draw with Newport County.

Warne’s first game in charge saw the Dons look likelier to win in a tight contest against the Exiles at Stadium MK, but with no game forthcoming in a tight contest, it meant that the Dons were unable to grab a win on their new bosses’ debut.

Speaking after the game, Warne said that based on a single training session, he felt the players had taken up a lot of his desired instructions for starters.

He said, “I was really pleased with a lot to be fair. We only had the lads in for one day and one training session. We are quite a lot to deal with, me and Rich, and they had a lot of information to take on.

“My teams always play with a real energy, a real athleticism, try to play forward when they can and I don’t know if you notice but try and cross the ball when they can. We try to keep it in there, help the lads with set-pieces and everything.

“For all the information they had to take on, plus the nervous energy for playing for a different manager that’s never nice, I thought the lads done really well. They kept a clean sheet. I thought the only chance we really conceded was a header from a set-piece early on. Apart from that, I don’t think we had a lot to defend.

“I thought the lads gave a good account of themselves really. It’s just disappointing we didn’t get a goal in the second half, which would’ve been the icing on the cake.”

One element that Warne said he would like to improve was chance creation, as he felt that the side could’ve done more to unlock the away defence.

He said, “There wasn’t many chances. There was an intent to cross the ball. I did say to the lads after that we probably didn’t play to the striker’s feet for as much as I’d like.

“We’re not going to come in after one one hour session on a stadium pitch and be absolutely perfect but most of it was pretty good. The finishing edge at the top end of the pitch is the hardest thing, and I thought in fairness as well, don’t get away from the fact Newport defended really well. They always had a threat up top with pace that we dealt with generally ok.

“I like my teams to be aggressive and to play forward when they can. We started the game really well but you can’t keep that intensity for 90 minutes.

“There was a real intent about the play and you could see the lads really wanted to win. I asked them with four games to go to pick up some real points and I leave really pleased.”

Talking about the general philosophy, Warne said he wants to enforce a positivity in his squad in order to booster their forms going into both the final games of the season and the start of the next.

He said, “I want my teams to be fearless and sometimes when you’re not doing well, that’s the hardest thing. It’s difficult to make yourself great when you’re fearful of failure. So we’ll keep reinforcing how great they are and the good things they did and hopefully little by little, we’ll improve.”