Relieved Liam Manning was delighted with his side’s response after MK Dons’ battling 2-1 win at Oxford.

The Dons dragged themselves out of the Sky Bet League One relegation zone as they bounced back from Tuesday night’s disappointing defeat to Bolton at the Kassam Stadium.

Matt Smith opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before Will Grigg’s late penalty seemingly put the visitors out of sight.

John Mousinho provided a late scare with his 89th-minute effort, but Manning’s men held on for a precious three points at the expense of under-pressure former boss Karl Robinson.

“There was definitely relief after the last five minutes after the one we conceded,” admitted Manning.

“It’s a terrific response from Tuesday. Throughout the tough couple of games we had I never questioned the players’ attitude, work rate or commitment.

“It was more around understanding and confidence more than anything.

“I think if you look at this result, we’ve set a benchmark in terms of what we need to look like in terms of work rate, commitment and out of possession defensively.

“People were maxed out at times and that needs to be the foundations of what we do.

“There were some passages of quality, that can be improved and something we get better at.

“But ultimately it was all about getting the three points.

“The whole focus has to be improving and taking some of these tough experiences we’ve had and developing resilience, grit and togetherness and we saw that in abundance.

“I’m really pleased for the players. They deserved it.”

Oxford dropped below the Dons after this defeat. It is back-to-back losses for Robinson’s men after having looked like they turned a corner with successive wins.

Just two wins from the last seven in the league has left Robinson on shaky ground with the club’s fans.

“The first thing I’ll say is that whatever I say is not an excuse,” stressed Robinson. “It will be seen as an excuse, but the result is a fact.

“The result is not acceptable and our results as a whole have not been acceptable.

“Some of our performances have been OK, but we can’t keep missing the chances that we’re missing.

“If you look at their goal and the three-minute period Marcus (McGuane) hits the post, it drops to Cameron (Brannagan) and it hits the guy in the face and goes up two foot and hits the bar.

“Two minutes later they go down our end and score. In that spell it’s also the consistency and the negativity that has been thrown upon us this season so far.

“I thought the players gave everything. We know what people expect of us is higher and it’s hurting because of the amount of negative results we have.”