Michael Doughty believes that it would have been hard to not be excited by Town’s performance as they overcame MK Dons away from home for the first time in ten years.
The 26-year-old scored the opener with a delightful finish in the first half before Jake Hesketh brought the game level for the home side 15 minutes into the second period.
Keshi Anderson silenced the home crowd a minute after they’d equalised with an absolute howitzer from 30 yards before a Panenka penalty gave Swindon a two-goal cushion.
Kieran Agard scored his thirteenth goal of the season to set up a backs-to-the-wall final five minutes for the visitors who held on to record their third away win out of three in 2019.
Doughty’s double, his second in the space of a month, and overall performance was praised by his manager, Richie Wellens, and the midfielder gave an insight into his thought process for both goals.
“For the first goal, I opened up my body and actually couldn’t see the goalkeeper,” said Doughty.
“In that split-second in my head, I was thinking he was a bit unsighted, so I just used the defender to try to caress it.
“It was going right in the corner, so even if he did dive, I think it would have been tough for him to get it.
“We played really well and that was a sign of our pressing and counter-attack, which worked really well.
“I wasn’t meaning to be disrespectful with the penalty. I genuinely feel it is a good way to try to score as, usually, the keeper is not expecting something like that.
“This season I have gone left and right and did a similar penalty against Newport in the Checkatrade Trophy.
“I thought that is probably the last thing he would be expecting.
“It worked out well and, luckily, we got the three points.”
Doughty was asked about how life at the club has been this season and under the new manager.
“I love playing. I obviously have really good relationship with the club and the fans and in my ideal world, we go up this year and we’re all at a higher level.
“Since he (Richie Wellens) has arrived, I certainly feel my performances have improved. You’re never going to be brilliant every week and the manager has an expectation of me and I’m going to try my best to reach that.
“I think everyone, certainly the spectators, would be excited by how we played – high-tempo, counter-attacking. I think if we had a little bit more quality in the final third then the margin could have been even greater.”
