Darling felt Dons had a winner in them after his late equaliser

Harry Darling admitted to cutting short his celebration late in the day against Wigan Athletic because he felt MK Dons could go on and win the game.

The defender’s header past Latics keeper Ben Amos with three minutes to go was his eighth goal of the season and raised the roof at Stadium MK as it cancelled out Tom Naylor’s 58th minute strike for the visitors.

But while Darling has been enjoying his choreographed celebrations with striker Mo Eisa in recent weeks, he said he felt Dons could use their momentum to go on and win it so cut short his celebration.

“We didn't want to draw the game,” he said. “Though it was a good moment, we wanted to win it so we didn't celebrate too much.

“It shows what the groups is about. At 1-0 down we kept believing and went to the last whistle. We've got that belief.

“I'm delighted with the goal, and so is Twiney because he got his 10th assist! It's good for me to chip in with goals because it helps, so adding another one is good.

“If there are goals from all over the pitch, we're not just relying on one man. If we can all chip in, it will help us get more wins.”

Despite both teams battling it out at the top of the League One table, the match itself was far from a classic with precious few chances at either end, and a pernickety refereeing performance from Robert Madley meant the game had no flow and a real stop-start nature.

Dons went into the game on a ten-game unbeaten run, and though their winning streak came to an end at five games, Darling said staying unbeaten was key.

He said: “Both teams cancelled each other out. We could have snatched it at the end but they could probably say the same. It's a point gained, we didn't lose, the unbeaten run continues.

“We didn't play as good as we can do or have been recently. We'll reflect on it and hopefully put it right next week.”