MK Dons boss Scott Lindsey hailed his side’s return to action after a break as they defeated Chesterfield 3-0.
The Dons were in front inside the opening 15 seconds when Scott Hogan turned in Joe Pritchard’s cross.
Chesterfield’s hopes of a comeback were hurt when the already booked Darren Oldaker was shown a 24th-minute red card.
Alex Gilbey doubled the Dons’ lead two minutes later when he tapped in from Aaron Nemane’s cross and scored his second in the 82nd minute as he finished from Tom Carroll’s through pass.
The result saw MK Dons win a sixth straight League Two match and move into the automatic promotion places.
Lindsey was happy a first game in just over two weeks yielded success, saying: “I thought we played well.
“I’m really pleased with the clean sheet and really pleased with the kick-off – it’s a routine I’ve been working on for about two years now and it’s the first time I’ve scored on it, so I’m delighted with that.
“But it was a good start and we played well in the game.
“I know they got a man sent off relatively early…but we’ve still got to beat a good side and I thought we were good tonight.
“The players were outstanding. We hadn’t played for 16 days but the way we attacked that game, I think it was really clear to see the players had the bit between their teeth from the very off. Proud of them, really pleased with them.
“We’re pleased in the manner in which we’ve played and obviously are pleased with the result.”
Chesterfield’s assistant manager Danny Webb lamented the first half after a third defeat in four league games.
He said: “You don’t think you’re going to concede after five minutes, let alone five seconds, so it sort of knocks you for six a little bit as staff and players and I’m sure supporters.
“It gives the whole place an ascendancy and we didn’t really recover from that until the second half. We did show some glimpses first half but glimpses are glimpses aren’t they?
“You want to see results and today sadly we didn’t do enough, whether it be with 10 or 11 men, to get the three points.
“I think from the first kick of the second half we showed a little bit of life and gave supporters something to get hopeful about.
“You hit the post at 2-0, it goes in, who knows, but you’re always susceptible to counter-attacks, which they ultimately (scored from) and they could have scored a couple more. So it was a really disappointing night.”
