Leko confident Dons will avoid the drop after recent improvements

Jonathan Leko has no doubts MK Dons will avoid relegation this season and has predicted a promotion push next time out.

The 23-year-old put in a man of the match performance against Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night, but Tom Bayliss’ 89th minute goal snatched all three points for the visitors at Stadium MK.

While the result did not move Dons from their 19th spot, they still teeter on the edge of the relegation zone, having only climbed out on Saturday after spending more than three months in League One’s bottom four.

Leko, who signed for the club a little under two weeks ago from Birmingham City, said he fully expects Dons to remain in the third tier this term and feels they can return to the promotion scrap next year.

“For sure I think we're staying up, 100 per cent,” he said. “We've just got to put the chances away, which is down to us attacking players and us as a team, but for sure we'll stay up and we can focus next year on promotion.”

Tuesday’s defeat though was a real suckerpunch for Dons. Having been the side on top for the majority of the game, Bayliss’ goal came with only Shrewsbury’s second chance all night.

Leko admitted morale was low in the dressing room immediately after the loss, adding: “We're all disappointed to lose the game like that. We dominated the ball, dominated possession. They only really had that one chance so it's disappointing but we'll move onto the next game and focus on winning that.

“We all said we've got to move on, we can't focus on losing. The gaffer keeps telling us to stay positive, stick together, be aggressive and I think we showed that throughout the game. We created chances, but we just got unlucky to lose.”