Mark Jackson’s honest take on Bristol Rovers after victory for MK Dons

The MK Dons manager watched on as his side defeated a poor Bristol Rovers side, as the Gas fell to their third league loss on the bounce.

Goals in each half from Mo Eisa and Max Dean gave Jackson’s side the deserved three points, and he was complimentary towards his opposition, who had a day to forget.

“We were up against a good team there today,” said the ex-Leeds coach. “They’re a really good team, imposed a lot of their attacking threat as well with the way they play but we had a clear way of playing and I thought the players executed the game plan really, really well.”

Joey Barton’s side dominated possession, however similar to their recent games struggled to break down a resolute Dons defence, and ended up having the ball for the most part in their own half, giving Jackson’s side a chance to utilise the counter attack with their pace on the break.

“My players showed patience in defensive situations and then when we won the ball we could counter attack and utilise our threat.”

“They tested us but again we wanted to play that high pressing game but at times we had to be a little bit patient, we had to deal with their formation changes within the game and I thought we did that well.”

It was the worst possible start for Rovers, when with less than two minutes on the clock Jarell Quansah lunged for the ball, missing it and taking out Eisa inside the box.

A penalty was awarded with no hesitation from the referee and the ex-Bristol City man picked himself up and sent Ellery Balcombe the wrong way to open the scoring in front of the Thatchers end.

Max Dean secured the three points inside injury time on the counter attack, netting his first professional goal and compiling the misery for Joey Barton’s men - who were coming off the back of a 5-1 loss to Morecambe last time out.

“We knew that Joey would’ve got them up for it today, off the back of a heavy loss last time,” Jackson added. “I watched their performance back versus Morecambe and it was just goals at certain times.

“They were going to be a threat and a strong team which they proved today and we had to be on top of our game today, our defenders and midfielders had to work so so hard and we were put under some pressure but we stayed strong, we stayed disciplined and we managed to get away with three points and a clean sheet.”