MK Dons 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday: Karl Robinson and Carlos Carvalhal reaction
Wednesday 16 December 2015 09:57, UK
MK Dons manager Karl Robinson will not let his side get carried away with escaping the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone on Tuesday night, insisting they will continue to take a "level-headed" approach going forward.
The Dons lifted themselves out of the bottom three with a 2-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday, goals from Carl Baker and Nicky Maynard putting the hosts in charge before Gary Hooper's late consolation.
That was their first win in six weeks and only fifth of the season in the league, but Robinson is determined to keep his team grounded.
He said: "We're not going to get too disheartened when we drop into it (bottom three) and we're not going to get too excited when we get out of it.
"It's about a level-headed approach from the players and the manager and we never take our foot off the gas if possible at this level.
"It's important we sustain our mentality, our focus, our desire and our commitment to the football club and if we do so then we'll win more games than we have done in the first part of the season."
He added after Tuesday's win moved them a point clear of third-bottom Charlton: "The players have been sensational for me and nobody can ask more from a group of players and we need to sustain that now over the next few weeks.
"The quality in possession was phenomenal and the first half was as good a 45 minutes as we've seen. To dominate a top-six team who have spent millions, it was a deserved win that we got."
MK Dons went ahead after Maynard played in Baker, who weaved his way past several players before poking the ball into the net for a superb individual goal.
Maynard doubled their lead five minutes into the second half when he beat the offside trap before finishing calmly beyond Keiren Westwood.
The hosts were able to survive a nervy finale after Wednesday - who would have moved level with seventh-placed Cardiff on 33 points with a win - gave themselves hope as Hooper slammed in a cut-back by fellow substitute Ross Wallace.
Owls boss Carlos Carvalhal said: "In the first half, we were a shadow of our team. We had a lot of problems in controlling the ball and we missed a lot of passes, which is not normal in our team.
"At moments when we needed to press we didn't do it at the same time, together, so we lost our (defensive) lines and it opened the team. MK Dons fully deserved to be winning 1-0 in that moment.
"For the second half, we had a talk with the players and made a change after we had conceded another one and we put more players in attack.
"We have heart, we have a soul in our team and we believed that we could come back into the game.
"We brought it back to 2-1 and we tried to go for the draw and the only positive part of the game was the way we reacted and finished the game."
