MK Dons manager Graham Alexander was delighted with his team’s response to a half-time rallying cry as they staged a late comeback to beat Colchester 3-2 in Sky Bet League Two.
Substitute Matt Dennis fired home in the 10th minute of stoppage time to make it three wins from four for the Dons and move them up to second place in the table.
Ex-Colchester man Alex Gilbey equalised in the 88th minute after Joe Taylor’s brace had cancelled out Mo Eisa’s early opener and put Colchester into the lead.
Alexander was full of praise for the character his side showed, bouncing back from a midweek defeat away at Crawley.
“I take any win, but I think it’s great confidence for the players’ character and personality, which we need to instil and bring out of them,” he said.
“Actually, it’s not instil – it’s there, you can see it in spells. I thought we started the game really well.
“Deservedly 1-0 up and then we just implode for two minutes, which we’ve obviously spoken about before. So that’s something we have to correct.
“I thought we should have come in at half-time in front, but we didn’t and we challenged the players to show the character that’s needed to win a game of football and they’ve done that, so great credit to the players.
“The supporters stayed with us, the fitness of the guys was phenomenal again and we’re delighted with the three points.
“There’s games to win in an easier fashion, without a shadow of a doubt, but the elation – you’ve got to suck that up and sort of add it to your armour because it’s a brilliant way to win.”
Eisa kept up his record of scoring in every league game this season to break the deadlock, glancing home a header from Cameron Norman’s cross in the eighth minute.
Colchester responded immediately, though, as Luton loanee Taylor arrived at the back post to convert from Jayden Fevrier’s cross.
Taylor doubled his tally minutes later to put the hosts ahead, finding the net from Junior Tchamadeu’s delivery to make it four goals for the campaign.
The 20-year-old threatened to seal his hat-trick in the 76th minute, but his shot went high and wide after ex-Colchester captain Tommy Smith gifted him an opportunity.
And it proved to be a costly miss as substitute Ash Hunter played the ball into the path of Gilbey, who found his way between two Colchester defenders and chipped the ball over Owen Goodman to bag the leveller.
The winner came in the 100th minute with Hunter providing the assist again to tee-up Dennis, who took one touch before drilling home from the edge of the area.
Colchester boss Ben Garner felt his team should have been awarded a penalty with the scores level in injury time, when Donell Thomas went down in the area.
“We had opportunities to go further ahead in the game, which we didn’t take,” he said. “I’m also really disappointed with the penalty decision at 2-2.
“It’s a blatant penalty not given. The game goes the other way if that’s the case, but we have to see the game through. We were so young at the end, so young on the pitch.”
'I knew it could be good' - Sabitzer proud after earning Austria top spot
Marcel Sabitzer is proud of not only his winning goal, but also the strength Austria showed in their 3-2 victory over the Netherlands on Tuesday.
Ralf Rangnick's side were drawn into a group including pre-tournament favourites France, the Netherlands and Poland, and few expected them to come out on top.
However, after narrowly losing their opening to Les Bleus, Austria beat Poland 3-1 before Sabitzer struck the winner – his first goal at the European Championships – against the Netherlands to see them finish first in Group D.
With a last-16 tie against one of the best third-place teams still to come, Sabitzer is confident in Austria's togetherness.
"I got the ball deep, I looked up to see if someone was free in the middle, but I got the impression that [the Netherlands] had more men there. In the past, the left foot has often helped me, so I thought that was the moment I could give it a try," Sabitzer told reporters.
"As soon as the ball left my foot, I knew it could be good.
"We are all footballers who want to win games, and that is our objective in every game. And if you have moments where things are a bit more difficult, and it goes back and forth, then the question is how does the team react to that.
"You can be proud of the unity we have, the mentality we have on the pitch ... we used our strengths, the goal was very nicely worked. So many Austrians who watch us in the stadium trust us, and we want to give them something back."
Chile 0-1 Argentina: Super sub Martinez sends Albiceleste to Copa America quarter-finals
Lautaro Martinez struck a late winner as Argentina beat Chile 1-0 to secure their place in the Copa America knockout stages with a game to spare.
The reigning champions looked like they would have to settle for a point on a frustrating night at the MetLife Stadium, having failed to turn their superiority into the game's opening goal.
But substitute Martinez, who also netted from the bench in his nation's opener against Canada, finally broke Chile's resolve when he lashed home two minutes from time.
It moved Lionel Scaloni's side onto six points at the Group A summit, three points ahead of Canada, who beat Peru 1-0 earlier in the day. A draw against Peru in their final game will now be enough to secure top spot.
Argentina dominated the first half with 13 unanswered shots, yet just three of those were on target. One of them saw Julian Alvarez fire straight at Claudio Bravo from close range in the 22nd minute.
Lionel Messi also went close to scoring in the 36th minute. La Albiceleste's skipper let fly with a fizzing 25-yard attempt that clipped the outside of Bravo's left post, while Erick Pulgar almost turned Nahuel Molina's cross beyond the Chile goalkeeper two minutes later.
La Roja had Bravo to thank for keeping Argentina at bay, as the reigning champions continued to carry the greater attacking threat after the break.
The veteran stopper beat away Molina's fierce strike within five minutes of the restart, and just after the hour mark, he produced a superb reflex save to tip Nicolas Gonzalez's drive onto the crossbar.
With the breakthrough still eluding the world champions, Scaloni bolstered his attack by introducing Angel Di Maria and Martinez for the final 17 minutes.
Chile had increased their own attacking threat by registering their first attempts on goal in the contest, with Rodrigo Echeverria calling Emiliano Martinez into action on both occasions.
Yet, there was to be a late twist in Argentina's favour when an 88th-minute corner broke kindly for Martinez, who reacted quickest to fire into the roof of the net and send La Albiceleste through to the quarter-finals.
Persistence pays dividends for Argentina
The history books would have suggested Argentina should have fancied their chances against Chile.
This is epitomised by the fact they are now unbeaten after 90 minutes in the last 13 meetings, winning eight of those, but that does not tell the full story.
Seven of those eight victories have only been by a single-goal margin and, of course, they lost on penalties in the Copa America final showdowns of 2015 and 2016.
Though they dominated most of this contest and registered 22 shots to their opponents' three, just the one goal was enough once more, with both of Martinez's strikes from the bench in this competition coming in the 88th minute.
Argentina progress to the Copa America knockout stages for a 14th consecutive time, excluding when they withdrew from the 2001 tournament.
Toothless Roja see resistance broken
Chile looked set to frustrate Argentina once again at the Copa America and hold out for a second successive clean sheet.
Their defensive resolve - along with an inspired performance by Bravo between the sticks - looked like it would remain firm and keep the reigning champions at bay, until Martinez's late intervention.
What will be more concerning for La Roja is the fact they have now gone four successive Copa America matches without scoring, while having to wait until the 72nd minute for their first attempt on goal.
That is something they need to address quickly ahead of their crucial final Group A clash with Canada, in which a victory could still see them snatch second place and a quarter-final spot.
Scotland denied '100% penalty' against Hungary, says Clarke
Scotland head coach Steve Clarke was adamant his side should have been awarded a penalty as their Euro 2024 campaign ended with a 1-0 defeat to Hungary in Stuttgart.
Kevin Csoboth scored the winning goal in the 10th minute of injury-time to put Scotland out of another major tournament in the group stages.
However, things could have been much different for Clarke's side.
Stuart Armstrong looked to have skipped beyond Hungary's Willi Orban in the 80th minute, before the RB Leipzig defender grappled across the midfielder, with both tumbling inside the area.
Referee Facundo Tello waved away Scotland's appeals, and a subsequent check by VAR deemed the challenge not worthy of awarding a spot-kick.
“It was 100% a penalty," Clarke said. "Somebody, somewhere has to explain to me why that's not a penalty. It’s a one goal game, we get the penalty and it could have been a different night.
“I've got other words, but I'm not going to use them. I don't understand how VAR can look at that and say it's not a penalty.
“In a European competition, it may have been better to have a European referee but we had European VAR and maybe a referee didn't see the challenge clearly on the pitch, so what's the purpose of VAR if they are not going to come in on something like that. It was a penalty.”
Having qualified for successive European Championships, this was Scotland’s 12th major tournament group stage, and in 50% of those they have failed to win a single match – at the 1954, 1958, 1986, and 1998 World Cups and EURO 2020 and 2024.
“We gave everything, there’s nothing you can fault there. It was a very tough game against a good opponent," said Clarke. "A very close game that was always going to be decided by the first goal. You could tell that after half an hour.
“Unfortunately for us when we opened up towards the end of the game to try and chase the winner, that we felt we needed to get to the next stage, we got caught on the counter.”
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