Martin can make no promises ahead of new season

Russell Martin won't be making any bold predictions ahead of the new League One season which gets underway tomorrow.

Still less than a year after taking over at the helm, Martin has overseen just 25 competitive games as manager and believes his side are still learning the nuances of how he wants them to play going forward.

Dons managed to avoid the drop last season, finishing 19th in the curtailed League One season, but after a pre-season campaign which saw them fail to win against higher-level opposition, Martin's side eased past Northampton Town on Tuesday night in the EFL Trophy to give supporters a boost of confidence heading into the curtain-raiser against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.

"I'm not promising anything, we'll stick with our process and do what we do whoever we play," he said. "There are no easy games. October is a crazy month, some months we'll be playing seven or eight games, it will be so full-on.

"We'll come up against loads of different challenges this year. I was pleased with our performances against high calibre opposition, except Norwich. And we've got so much more to do and room for improvement.

"The non-negotiables are there now: intensity, work-rate, pressing, moving up the pitch, we try and control the game as much as possible. All of that is us. The rest is work and detail. We have to get better and keep improving. I believe teams will try and stop us. Last year, until we were five, six, seven games in, we got paid very little respect by people and we were fine with that. We were in the relegation zone so it was understandible.

"But against Northampton, we dealt with it well after going a goal down. And by the last half an hour, we were enjoying ourselves."