Mike Williamson saw plenty to give him a lift despite losing his opening match as MK Dons head coach to promotion-chasing Accrington 1-0.
Shaun Whalley struck in the 31st minute, making space for himself in the area and firing into the roof of the net for the winning goal which moved Stanley into the play-off places.
It made it three successive League Two wins for the Reds while it is now nine games without a win for the Dons, who appointed former Gateshead boss Williamson four days ago after sacking Graham Alexander.
Top scorer Mo Eisa had three good chances while Max Dean fired narrowly wide in the second half for the visitors but goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray was also superb in stopping Whalley getting a second.
MK Dons dropped to 18th place after being top at the end of August.
“I saw a lot of positives, a lot of character and a lot of individual strengths even though the result is difficult to take,” said Williamson.
“We have only had two training sessions so minimal time to get our points across and there are things to iron out but we have a group of lads in there who want to win.
“You can sense the frustration with the way it’s gone recently, we missed two or three chances early on and that increases the frustration but for us it’s getting them to understand the process.
“The group in there are doing a lot of talking after the game, there are a lot of strong characters and they will bring the disappointed lads through.
“I am happy to be here and there is a lot of encouragement for me and the boys.”
Stanley are now seventh in the table on 23 points, three away from the automatic promotion places.
Manager John Coleman said: “I am delighted with the win. We started off shakily and then got to grips with the game.
“It was probably our best performance of the season in terms of playing consistently the way we want to play.
“It has been a nightmare week, we have a plan to play against a new manager and had to do analysis on two teams – MK Dons and Gateshead – which wasn’t ideal and assistant manager Jimmy Bell’s laptop broke!
“I think Mike will get it right, he plays the style of football they want and you could see if in flashes, and they will only get better.
“But we stuck to our game plan brilliantly and we made plenty of chances and that’s back-to-back clean sheets.
“You can’t fault any of our players but I am not getting carried away. You can easily go on a bad run as a good run.
“But once you are on a good run, it gets easier. We found that last time when we won this league. Saying that, every team who is on a good run will feel that they have a big chance to have a say in this league.”
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