MK Dons head coach Paul Warne spoke ahead of Saturday’s game with Salford City

Knowing Karl Robinson’s history in Milton Keynes could inspire Salford City to work even harder for their manager, Paul Warne believes.

The Ammies visit MK1 on Saturday for only the third time, but for Robinson it is ground well trodden, having spent six-and-a-half seasons in charge at MK Dons.

Certainly no strangers to facing his former club, with Saturday’s game the 17th time he has been in the opposite dugout since his 2016 departure, Robinson brings a City side one place and one point above Dons with fourth facing fifth at the sharp end of League Two.

Given Robinson’s impressive history at the club, remaining the only manager to guide them to the Championship, as he did in 2015, Warne feels players will not only lift themselves when taking on former employers, but will do so for a manager too.

He said: “If you have humanistic players like I have, I think if we went back to one of my former clubs, I know my players might give another five per cent because they know what it means to me. We’ll be playing against Salford, but we’re playing against Karl’s Salford so we’ll have to be at our best.

“Because of what he’s done here before, he’ll get a good ovation from the crowd. He was monumental on the climb through the leagues, and did an amazing job with Richie alongside him. I’m respectful of that, and I know his players will be too. It adds a little bit more to the tie.”

Home form has been one of Dons’ biggest shortcomings this season, suffering defeats to three of the top six at MK1 thus far. But after some promising performances of late, and particularly on the road, Warne hopes his side have made important steps towards addressing their issues at home.

“It should be a good game, and should be a good judge of where we’ve been,” he continued. “All the other top teams we’ve played here, apart from Gillingham, we’ve been pretty unimpressive. It will be good to see if we’ve made the steps forward that I think we have.

“Salford are on a good run, they’re a top team who will come here and could cause trouble on our big pitch because they’re athletic and young, and they believe in themselves.”