MK Dons were worthy of a point against Cats, admits boss Martin

Russell Martin said he was 'proud' his MK Dons players for their part in an enterprising 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday.

Martin's side battled back from an early Charlie Wyke goal to take a deserved lead through Joe Mason and Cameron Jerome, before Luke O'Nien's fine finish rescued a point for the Black Cats.

MK Dons were indebted to goalkeeper Andrew Fisher for a couple of outstanding late saves to deny Aiden McGeady, but Martin felt his side were worthy of their point in what was an open contest.

"I just thought it was a really good game," Martin said.

"Two good teams going toe-to-toe, having a really good battle for control and territory.

"It got a bit messy towards the end with both teams trying to win it.

"That's what I said to the players afterwards, we're playing one of the best teams and squads in the league, working really hard under a new manager to get momentum.

" When we've watched their other games the last 20 minutes turns into Sunderland attacking and dominating, and the other team hanging on.

"That never happened today.

"We started well despite conceding the goal, bounced back unbelievably well.

"We struggled for the last fifteen minutes of the first half and we needed the break to come, and then the second half was just a ding dong really."

Martin was left to rue the defending which handed Sunderland both of their goals, particularly as the second came from a McGeady run that his side had worked on defending against in preparation for the game.

"We don't make teams work hard enough," Martin said.

"Some of the quality of the goals we score is outstanding, but we're too soft. I didn't see their first goal coming at all. McGeady picks it up a long way from goal and it's one pass for them to score.

"The second one, we'd spoken about keeping McGeady outside, we let him inside and the one man who's unmarked ends up with the ball and scores.

"There is always something we can improve, so on Monday we'll go through it and try to make sure it doesn't happen again."