The head coach spoke ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup first round game with Swindon Town

MK Dons boss Paul Warne is keen to maintain the club’s winning momentum when they take on Swindon Town in the FA Cup.

Ian Holloway’s League Two side head to Stadium MK for the first round of the competition to face a Dons side who have scored ten in their last two games, and won three in a row to kick-start their League One campaign.

Swindon though have found their own form since the draw, picking up seven points from nine to sit midtable in the fourth tier.

The EFL Trophy in particular proved an important competition for Dons this season. Prior to their Trophy opener in September, Warne’s side had not won a game but back-to-back wins against Crawley and Brentford U21s saw Dons splutter into life.

While the circumstances heading into the FA Cup first round are somewhat different now, thanks to winning four out of five in the league of late, Warne says the cup and trophy competitions are still vitally important to approach with a positive mentality, and he is eager to continue their form.

“I love the FA Cup,” he said. “We took the EFL Trophy really seriously too. If we can have another run, we’ve got a good squad, a good cup run will do everyone some good.

“We never want to lose, and it can be useful to build some momentum and get some goals. I’m not saying that about Swindon though, Ian’s teams are always hard to play against.

Speaking more on Swindon, he said: “It could be a basketball game on Saturday. They’re very good at counter-attacking, good at running forwards, but so are we. (Aaron) Drinan is always hard to play against.

“Both teams want to win and go through, both managers respect the competition and want to give it a good go. Last year, we beat Colchester and Oldham and gave it a really good go against Oxford and were unfortunate to go out.”