All eyes on the prize now for Dons in final two games of the season

Everyone at MK Dons knows the mission statement heading into the final two games of the season: do whatever it takes to stay up.

Mark Jackson’s side have two games to secure their League One status, beginning on Saturday at home to Barnsley before a trip to Burton Albion on the final day of the season. A win in either of the fixtures could well be enough to keep them above the bottom four.

“Everyone will speak about pressure on these last two games,” said goalkeeper Jamie Cumming. “But all of the teams below would swap places with us I think.

“If you look at where we were after Port Vale, it looked like we were done. It's a situation now where we can get out of it, and with a couple of good performances we'll be all good.

“We're at that stage now where we know what we have to do. We have to go out there, implement the game plan we have in place and get the three points.

“Hopefully we'll finish strong and get over the line. We need everyone onside.”

Results on Tuesday night, while not dramatically altering Dons’ mission statement heading into the final week of the season, gave them more of a reason to be looking over their shoulders, with Oxford jumping them into 19th and Accrington moving level with Morecambe and within two points thanks to their stunning 1-0 win over Bolton Wanderers.

But despite the midweek hiccups, Jackson said the plan remains the same.

He said: “They're the facts, what we're presented with, we know what we have to do. We're clear, we're ready, we've had a good week in preparation. It's an important game, a game we're looking forward to. We'll be ready to compete and achieve our goals.

“We can't control what happened in the week - you have eyes on things, you listen to it, of course, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. But we know now what we have to do, how we approach the game and we know we have to go and try and win it.

“Everybody is ready and good to go.”