MK Dons boss Paul Warne thrilled to reach FA Cup third round

Paul Warne praised MK Dons as they saw off fellow Sky Bet League Two outfit Oldham 3-1 to reach the FA Cup third round.

Firm strikes from outside the box by Joe Tomlinson and Liam Kelly either side of half-time saw the Dons take a 2-0 lead.

Luke Hannant’s penalty halved the home side’s lead, but a late third by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing confirmed a home win and the Dons have reached round three for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.

Warne said he was very pleased with his side’s display.

He said: “I’m really pleased. We made changes today with fixtures coming up and we need to keep changing the team as much as we can to keep it fresh and keep competitions for places, which is good.

“I thought everyone who played today played a really good part, so that’s good, no injuries, plenty of goalmouth action, and in a typical way, we concede late on to add a bit of jeopardy.

“As hard as Micky’s team to play against, our lads were really good today.

“I thought we were excellent. There’s some really outstanding performances.”

Oldham boss Micky Mellon said his team ultimately did not show enough positive qualities to pull off victory.

“First of all, we’ve been beaten by a very good team with loads and loads of qualities and they showed them today,” he said.

“You have to come here and respect that they’re a good side. They have loads of quality all over the pitch and we had to make sure that we got players to their players and tried to put them under pressure.

“I came here today to get a result and expected us to do that, but we didn’t show the qualities when needed at vital times to go and get something.”