Martin wants to end Dons' away-day curse

Their away win over Blackpool last season has stood out a lot more than anyone at MK Dons would have liked, and Russell Martin wants to put it to bed.

Back in Sepember 2019, Paul Tisdale's side ran out 3-0 winners at Bloomfield Road. But few would have predicted it would be Dons' last away win in League One for more than a year.

Martin, who scored in that game, and his squad return to Blackpool this weekend to take on the Seasiders eager to put their away-day hoodoo to bed not just to end the unwanted statistic but also to get their league campaign looking in better shape.

"We have to get over that line at some point," said the manager. "We need to make sure, home and away, we're us and do what we do, but have to have that killer instinct away from home. We need to make it happen and we have a great opportunity on Saturday to do that.

"It's a while ago. I played in that game, and we weren't great. We scored three goals, two on the counter and a set-piece but I don't think we played well despite the good result.

"They're a good team, I like the way they play. They've got a manager who comes from a great club who do things a certain way, and they look like the Liverpool team a bit. We've had some brilliant performance away from home but we haven't got the results we feel we should have."

Blackpool sit second from bottom, one position below Dons after their opening six games this season. Neil Critchley managed just two games in charge of the club before the curtailed season after arriving at the helm from Liverpool U21s and Martin believes he is still ironing out issues in his side, but predicts their current 23rd place spot is a false picture of where they should be.

The Dons boss continued: "I don't believe they will be down there at the end of the season. They've had a lot of change in personnel, they're one of the only clubs to have done more than us in terms of bringing in and releasing players.

"The evidence suggests they won't finish anywhere near where they are at the moment. They'll still be tweaking and adapting. Their league position is a bit false at the moment. The league will take shape in the next five, six, seven games, or maybe not until Christmas. Things change a bit when you start to win games.

"I'm sure Blackpool will really have a go when they have possession but we have to try and stop that and impose ourselves on the game and control it as much as possible."