KARL: WE WERE MAGNIFICENT!
KARL Robinson hailed his ‘magnificent’ MK Dons as two-goal Will Grigg helped keep their automatic promotion dream alive and KO’d Swindon’s own top-two hopes.
The Dons brushed aside their hosts with a rampant second-half display and would have won by more but for a superb performance from Swindon goalkeeper Wes Foderingham.
Daniel Powell opened the scoring on the hour before top-scorer Grigg struck twice in the final 17 minutes to seal the romp.
A delighted Robinson, whose side are five points adrift of second-placed Preston, said: “To come to Swindon, one of our chief promotion rivals, and produce such a dominant performance was some achievement.
“Every single player in our side deserved to wear the shirt, they were magnificent.
“Seventy two points normally gets you in the play-offs. We’ve achieved that now – with seven matches still to go.
“It’s a fantastic achievement for the club and this set of players in particular and now we must look forward to Scunthorpe United on Tuesday night.”
The Dons would have put the game beyond Swindon’s reach in the opening 15 minutes but for the heroics of Foderingham, who pulled off a string of fine saves.
Robinson continued: “Even though Griggsy got two goals for us in the second half, I thought their goalkeeper was man of the match.”
The Dons boss picked out special credit for his midfielders, particularly Samir Carruthers, who was instrumental in the second goal and had a superb match.
“I almost had to find a place for him in the side, but Samir’s produced some terrific performances of late and was outstanding against Swindon,” he added.
Swindon began well and finished the first half strongly, with John Swift coming the closest with a cross-shot after Ben Gladwin created danger on the left.
Powell gave the Dons the lead when he headed in from close range after the inspired Foderingham had saved from Grigg.
The visitors doubled their lead 12 minutes later with the influential Carruthers and Dele Alli involved. Carruthers and Alli combined down the left, setting up Grigg, who rifled a left-foot shot into the far corner.
Dons, who leapfrogged Swindon into third place, underlined their superiority with a third goal late on.
The prolific Griggs bagged his 17th goal of the season after some sloppy defending by Branco.
Swindon boss Mark Cooper, whose side were beaten 2-1 at Milton Keynes in the autumn, refused to come down too hard on his players.
Cooper’s side now face an uphill battle to finish in the top two, and he reflected: “When you concede three at home you have to look at it. “I won’t be jumping up and down and screaming at the players.
“That won’t help. I didn’t think we created enough.”