Dons must reproduce 'best performance of the season' against Charlton

Russell Martin wants a repeat of his side's 'best performance of the season' when Dons take on Charlton on Tuesday night, but he will be watching on from the stands.

The red card shown to him by referee Jon Moss at Burnley earlier this month saw the Dons manager handed a touchline ban and a fine for the visit of Lee Bowyer's side for the second meeting between the teams this season.

When they met at The Valley in December, Scott Fraser capped a brilliant move to fire in the only goal of a thrilling game as Dons ran out 1-0 winners against the Addicks - a game Martin believes was the pinacle of the season so far, and sparked something of a recovery for his side. In 11 games since, Dons have lost just three of them as they have moved away from the relegation zone to sit firmly midtable.

"It was our best performance of the season," said the manager. "As a team, the way we played, the menatlity we showed, it was really, really strong. I feel we've been flexible since, we've had to adapt to different things. We've had a lot of injuries, and we've navigated our way through that well.

"It’s been a positive month, we’ve won three from four and played well. It’s a lot to improve on and a lot that we can keep getting better with and that’ll only help with those coming in and those returning from injury."

Charlton have won just two games in 10 since playing Dons, but have picked up a lot of draws during that time too, losing only three times as they sit sixth in the League One table. A Dons win though would see Martin's side move within six points of the Addicks and potentially into the top half of the table on Tuesday night.

He continued: "I went to Charlton on Saturday - that’s the beauty of not having a game. They are a very good team. They’ve lacked some consistency recently but have a real threat going forward and they score a lot of goals.

"It’s going to be a tough game as it was at their place. They are pushing for promotion this season but we can get a lot closer if we win the game. That’ll be big for us and is a massive incentive.

"We have to approach it the same way as the first game and implement our own game on them. We want to dictate the type of game as we always do. Players are aware of the opposition."