Mike Williamson hailed MK Dons’ energy as he claimed his first victory as manager in a rousing 4-1 win over Bradford at Stadium MK.
Joe Tomlinson gave The Dons an early advantage, but it was cancelled out by Bradford’s Alex Gilliead in the opening 20 minutes.
They reclaimed their lead through a Jack Payne free-kick before running away winners with two second-half goals from Max Dean and Alex Gilbey, marking Dons’ first victory in 10 league games.
“The boys were fantastic and played with so much energy,” Williamson said. “We created so many chances, which was pleasing, but I’ve got to say it was mainly off the players and less about the structure.
“When we get the ideas across, we should start to see things a bit cleaner. But the boys deserve that.
“They’ve been working extremely hard and it’s been tough so they deserve that feeling now.
“I think we probably missed the easier chances and put away the harder ones, as is football.
“I’m sure a lot of fans were thinking we were going to get that sucker punch. That’s the atmosphere. That’s what we’ve got to work through, understand and appreciate, and just focus on what we’re doing with the lads.
“It’s just about that emotional and tactical reset from the first minute to the 95th minute.
“We’ve got an extremely talented, hard-working and humble group here, and it’s just up to us to find the things we can improve and support them on.”
Bradford’s caretaker player-manager Kevin McDonald, who named himself in midfield in place of suspended captain Richie Smallwood, admitted standards slipped as City fell to their first defeat in five matches.
“We’ve set a standard and we fell below that standard,” McDonald said. “We expect better, the fans expect better and the fans deserve better.
“We need to pick ourselves up and be ready to go. I tell you one thing, we’ll be ready to go because we don’t want a performance like that and we won’t accept it as a player or as a coach.
“On a night like that, it’s one of those ones where we’ve got to have a good look over it and see where things went wrong and things we can improve.
“We’ve been compact as a team in and out of possession and when you are, you can win the ball back and play forward quickly.
“Tonight didn’t seem to be that way but credit to them, they played some nice stuff and it was a tough evening for everyone.
“At times we were a bit all over the place, and that’s not what we’ve been. They played some nice stuff and it was a tough evening for everyone.”
LA Galaxy v FC Dallas: Estevez hails visitors' improvement
Nico Estevez feels FC Dallas have made big strides as they prepare to embark on a tough three-game road stretch, starting with Wednesday's visit to the LA Galaxy.
Dallas are unbeaten in five games in all competitions (three wins, two draws) after only winning one of their previous nine (two draws, five defeats).
They visit Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday before going to Los Angeles FC and Minnesota United for their next two games in MLS.
Though Estevez was furious to see his team squander a 3-0 lead in a 3-3 draw with Real Salt Lake last Saturday, he is convinced things are moving in the right direction overall.
"We have to recover because we have three away games in a row. It's going to be challenging, we go to LA and then we go to Minnesota," Estevez said.
"It's going to be hard, but there's been improvement of the team against Austin, Houston, and now, against RSL. We're going in the right direction.
"We'll review things, we'll try to find the things we have to improve, but also it's about the mentality. Some of the mistakes we made were too much like youth players, we cannot do that at the pro level."
The Galaxy, meanwhile, ended a run of four straight draws by beating the Houston Dynamo 2-1 last time out, with Gabriel Pec scoring as they went within four points of the Western Conference summit.
"The team is getting better little by little. After three ties in a row, getting back home and getting a result, the feeling is very good," Pec said.
"The team has been doing great. Also, myself. I hope I can help my team moving forward."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
La Galaxy – Gabriel Pec
Pec has scored in his last four home games for the Galaxy, becoming the first player to do so since Javier Hernandez in 2022.
Only six players in club history have scored in five consecutive regular-season home appearances, with only three (Dejan Joveljic, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robbie Keane) doing so in the last 20 years.
FC Dallas – Asier Illarramendi
As well as being one of just three Dallas players with more than one goal to his name in MLS this year (two), Illarramendi has played 15 key passes, a tally only bettered by Paul Arriola (16). That is despite the Spaniard only making six league starts this season.
MATCH PREDICTION – LA GALAXY WIN
Dallas have collected just two points on the road this season (two draws, four defeats), tied for the fewest in MLS alongside Nashville SC.
They have just two wins in their last 17 regular-season road games, though one of those two victories came at the Galaxy last October.
A repeat is not expected on Wednesday, though, with the Galaxy unbeaten in six straight home matches (three wins, three draws). They have lost only one of their last 16 regular-season games at Dignity Health Sports Park (seven wins, eight draws).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
LA Galaxy – 47.5%
FC Dallas – 26.3%
Draw – 26.2%
Sporting Kansas City v Vancouver Whitecaps: Sartini wants aggressive approach from visitors
Vanni Sartini has asked Vancouver Whitecaps to take a more “aggressive” approach to beat Sporting Kansas City in MLS on Wednesday.
Vancouver sit seventh in the Western Conference with 19 points but after a run of six matches without a win in the competition, the teams below them are catching up.
The Whitecaps failed to mount a comeback in their latest defeat to Inter Miami, losing 2-1 at home, causing them to also lose ground on the teams above them.
Sartini expects a tough game against the side bottom of the table, saying: "It's a team that are behind us in the standings and we know how important it is to win those games to put more distance because we're still in a playoff position that we need to keep.
"It's always very hard to play there, the atmosphere, with the fans on top of you, it's very intense. We need to be good, and play our soccer and be even more aggressive.
"We need to score more goals and finalise our chances. We have six games that we could've won three of them and I think we deserved that, but we didn't win any of them.
"Of course, being more clinical is an issue and we need to be better. We're working on that."
Sporting KC have just 11 points having won only two of their league games so far this season.
They have failed to win any of their previous eight MLS matches, losing each of their last five.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Sporting KC – Alan Pulido
Pulido has scored five goals in four regular-season matches against the Whitecaps. Pulido’s 1.34 goals per 90 minutes against Vancouver is the second-best ratio of any Sporting Kansas City player against a single opponent (min. 300 minutes played versus opponent).
Vancouver Whitecaps – Ryan Gauld
Gauld scored the Whitecaps’ lone goal on Saturday from the penalty spot, his 10th penalty goal since the start of the 2022 season. Only three players in MLS have scored more goals from the spot over the last two-plus regular seasons than Gauld.
MATCH PREDICTION – SPORTING KANSAS CITY WIN
Sporting KC have won four of their six home matches against the Whitecaps (one draw, one defeat including playoffs) scoring at least three times in all four wins. Vancouver have totalled just three goals over the six matches combined.
However, Kansas City have lost five straight regular-season matches for the first time since April-May 2011. Sporting’s last losing streak of six or more league matches was a seven-match run in 2006.
Vancouver are winless in six straight MLS matches (three draws, three losses) after a 2-1 loss to Inter Miami on Saturday. The Whitecaps have totaled three goals in the six games after averaging 2.1 goals per match (17) in their first eight league matches this season.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Sporting KC – 44.8%
Draw – 27.9%
Vancouver Whitecaps – 27.3%
Bellingham voted LaLiga Player of the Season
Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham has been voted LaLiga's Player of the Season after playing a pivotal role in leading the club to their 36th league title.
Bellingham edged out team-mate Vinicius Junior, Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann, Girona's Artem Dovbyk and Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski in votes cast by fans, club captains and a panel of experts.
He scored 19 goals and had six assists in 28 league games this season, tallying 23 goals and 12 assists in all competitions in his first campaign with Los Blancos.
Bellingham, who could not attend Tuesday's ceremony in Sardinia as he is preparing for the Champions League final at Wembley against his former club Borussia Dortmund, said he was honoured to have received the award.
"I would like to dedicate it to my team-mates, the coaching staff and, most importantly, to the fans of the best club in the world," he said in a message.
"It's a pleasure every time I play for this team. Hala Madrid!"
The England star also won the 2022-23 Bundesliga Player of the Season prize while playing for Dortmund before moving to Real for a fee of around €103million.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl was full of praise for Bellingham.
"I know how strong Jude is and I know his personality very much, so he's an amazing player, an amazing character and of course, he will do everything to win that final," he said.
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