Goals mean glee for Paul Warne and MK Dons

Paul Warne was pleased his MK Dons side sorted out their goalscoring issues as they beat Barrow 2-0 at the SO Legal Stadium.

Since Warne took over in the summer his side have been goal-shy but a double salvo in the space of eight minutes from skipper Alex Gilbey and Callum Paterson secured them their first win of the season.

Warne said: “The second goal is always nice, as you don’t enjoy the last few minutes, but you can be a bit more relaxed and obviously we changed the shape to hold on to the lead away from home.

“I’m really pleased, I thought our play overall deserved the win. I thought we created the better chances and there’s a couple of real gilt-edged ones we didn’t take earlier, I was starting to think if it was going to be one of those days, so I was pretty pleased.”

MK Dons were well worth the win as they had most of the notable chances and Warne believes his team’s passing improved in the second half to unlock the Barrow defence.

“After half-time, we just moved the ball a bit quicker,” he said. “At times I thought we had some really good passages of play in the first half but we were also a little bit pedestrian. I thought we let them off the hook.”

Barrow boss Andy Whing admitted his side did not deserve anything from the game as their winless start to the season continued.

Whing said: “I’m obviously disappointed with the result. I don’t think we deserved anything from the game today.

“I thought we were well in the game, our shape of the ball was excellent again (but) their first goal was a carbon copy of the one last week and the second goal we had a free-kick and we got done on the counter-attack.

“It’s not like MK Dons have come here and opened us up, even when (Nathaniel) Mendez-Laing was one on one it’s a mistake from us again.”

Barrow struggled to create any big chances in the game, with no shots on target throughout the 90 minutes, and that is something Whing admits his side needs to improve.

“They’ve got seven clean sheets on the bounce. They’ve spent an absolute fortune and they are a tough nut to crack” he said.

“We got into some really good areas today at times, our final ball and our decision-making was poor.

“The big man (Innes Cameron) has got to do better. He works his socks off but you look at Paterson at the other end, he’s winning headers, being a nuisance and scoring goals, so we need more.

“We’re really, really stretched in terms of options, especially the front end of the pitch.”