Three more games for Dean to meet his pre-season ambitions

Striker Max Dean is edging closer to the pre-season goals he set himself this term, but he still hopes promotion can be the biggest tick yet.

The 20-year-old has had a breakout season at Stadium MK. Barely kicking a ball for the club until early September when he made his first EFL start against Notts County, the ex-Leeds man has not looked back. With 16 goals in 29 appearances for the club this season, those numbers could have been even greater had he not missed seven weeks with a hamstring injury.

Since his return though, four goals in his last three - including his sensational appearance off the bench which saw him score two and set two up in 25 minutes against Walsall - have Dean’s name back on everyone’s lips heading into the business end of the season.

When he spoke to the Citizen ahead of Dons’ pre-season tour to Germany, Dean said his aims were to play a bigger part in the team for the forthcoming season, and having done that in emphatic fashion, becoming the club’s top scorer, Dean said he is closing in on some other pre-season ambitions too.

“I'm pretty close to some of them, but we've got three more games to try and achieve more of them,” he said. “I've got to give it everything in the final three to get my goals and the team's goals as well.”

One of those is to get Dons back into League One at the first time of asking. Taking on Mansfield Town on Saturday, a side Dons are contending with for one of those top three spots, the chances of automatic promotion could be written off at Stadium MK. But with a play-off spot all but secured with three weeks to go, Dean said if it means going into the post-season with games to play, Dons will be ready.

“There won't be any hangover if we don't get automatic promotion and we went up in the play-offs, but if we can get into the top three that would be lovely too. We've got 270 minutes of footie to play, and we'll give it our all.

“We're going to play how we always do. They're up there for a reason, they're a really big club, with good players and a really experienced manager. We'll play our way and I think we can go toe-to-toe with them like we did (in Dons win over Mansfield last month). That worked out alright last time.”