Martin's mixed emotions over Dons' final position

Finishing in 19th position in League One might not be Dons' biggest success story, but Russell Martin says he achieved his primary objective as manager.

Taking over in November with the club in the relegation zone, Martin was tasked with keeping the club in the third tier and after climbing out of the bottom three in January, Dons ensured their safety as they distanced themselves from Tranmere Rovers.

Though Martin fancied his chances of a higher finish had the remaining nine games been played rather than working out the season on a point-per-game basis, he admitted the 19th place finish was lower than he wanted.

He said: "Our ambition was to stay up, so it was a success in terms of our objective when we took over, but 19th is not where we wanted to finish really. Saying that, I don't think many people will be looking at where we finished the season because of everything else going on.

"There are a lot of things we can build on though, and I think the players and the fans can go into next season confidently.

"I think everyone is just glad that we've got an answer after such a long time. I don't think anyone is happy about it, but there were so many issues that needed to be overcome before we could get back playing. When you see the number of people getting ill or dying, it made sense.

"It is a shame for us because I think we were really starting to get somewhere. The players took to our ways so quickly, and that was the biggest shock for us because we expected it to take a bit of time. Though the last result wasn't a good one for us, we had so much confidence heading into those next few games and I think we would have finished a lot higher."