Oxford defeat was ‘tough to take’ for Boateng

Hiram Boateng felt Dons lacked the same urgency in the second half they showed against Oxford United in the first at Stadium MK on Saturday.

Boateng fired in his fifth goal of the season after 11 minutes, inspiring Dons to a strong opening half performance against Karl Robinson’s side.

However, while Oxford upped their game after the break, Dons were unable to match their first half levels and conceded twice to suffer their third home defeat in League One of the season, dropping to ninth in the table.

“It was a tough defeat to take considering how we played in the first half,” said Boateng afterwards. “We wanted to come out in the second half with the same urgency and tempo but we lacked that kind of build-up play in the second half and it cost us.

“Taking nothing away from Oxford but we know we can play a lot better than that. We've had a talk bout it after the game, so we know we'll be working hard in training to rectify those issues.

“In some games, you don't have to be at your best to win, but games like today, we needed a bit more at both ends - in our box and in theirs. We have to dust ourselves down, analyse it and move on to the next game.”

Dons were without Scott Twine, Mo Eisa and Peter Kioso - missing as a result of covid isolation protocols. In the case of Twine and Eisa, their absences came late in Dons’ preparation for the game. Boateng though said the disruption was not to blame for their drop off in performance.

He added: “Before the game there were a lot of issues so a point would have been good to take but we fell short of that.

“There are a lot of important players missing but we have a squad of players who are missing. There is a lot of talent in this team but we have to show that more often. We still felt we were strong enough to come and win this game.”