Russell Martin lauds ‘brilliant performance’ in Leicester draw at MK Dons

Manager Russell Martin felt Leicester deserved to take all three points after a goalless draw at MK Dons.

The Foxes are still yet to win a league game this season but missed several chances during their trip to Stadium MK.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid fired wide early on when one-on-one with Dons goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray, who made several smart saves, and Jayden Joseph hit the crossbar late on.

Martin said: “It’s a brilliant performance. The only thing missing is a goal, unfortunately for us.

“If you score one, we win and keep a clean sheet. If we fought and play with the energy we did and scored, everyone would be talking about what a brilliant performance it was.

“We’re just one goal short of it being really brilliant so I’m frustrated we didn’t win. We deserved to win. We dominated for so long and so many aspects of the game.

“We’ve been away from home twice and had 46 shots on goal in the two games, but we have to score more goals. That will come.

“The lads have to add that last little bit of belief and ruthlessness. The team is so young but they’re learning and growing and I’m more excited than ever about what this team can achieve.

“There’s so much to be positive and excited about so I’ll concentrate on that. That’s the level we need to be at all the time.”

Alex Gilbey had a deflected shot held by visiting keeper Jakub Stolarczyk late on with the Dons’ best chance.

Boss Paul Warne was happy with the defensive performance of his Dons team, if disappointed his side couldn’t strike at the other end.

After a third successive league draw, he said: “I think physically, defensively, we did everything we could to keep a clean sheet, which we did.

“Massive respect for the front line all the way through – I know Craig (MacGillivray) got man of the match, but it was led by Sam (Nombe) at the top, and he was excellent, and nine other outfield players who gave everything.

“The subs came on and helped, which was good. That part of our game was really good. I just wish we had a little more personality on the ball when we got it back.

“In these kind of tight games, you might nick one on the counter-attack but a couple of our counter-attacks just fell on the last pass and then you’re looking on a set-piece, but our set-pieces let us down.

“Massive credit to Leicester – they are a very good team and we did everything we could to stop them. We did, but we unfortunately didn’t score at the other end.”