Lewie thinks Dons could be dark horses in League One

This season could be one of the toughest ever for League One clubs to achieve promotion.

Seven teams head into the campaign in the third tier having had Premier League experience. New owners at some clubs too have seen spending rise in the division as they look to get out of League One this time around.

While Dons are relative minnows compared to some of the bigger spenders, despite reportedly breaking their transfer record to sign striker Mo Eisa earlier this week, skipper Dean Lewington believes they will be dark horses when it comes to competing against some of big names in the division vying for promotion.

"I think we're dark horses in a way," he said. "The summer has been crazy with Sunderland, Ipswich and Wigan spending phenomenal amounts of money. It will probably be the toughest League One for 10, 15 years. We have some big teams coming up, big ones coming down and some big ones who haven't managed to get out yet.

"It will be a really tough league this year, but we're confident in what we do, and we'll give it everything we've got to make something happen."

After earning plaudits for their style of play last season, Lewington admitted more teams are noticing them though with Dons' seven new summer recruits waxing lyrical about the philosophy playing a big part in convincing them to sign.

The captain continued: "It's nice that people respect the way we play and want to be involved because of how it feels to play against you, that's really good and a sign we're doing something right.

"We want to win games and be successful. We've established a style now, it's about perfecting it, getting better at it to achieve some success."