Dons have to stop comparing this season to the last - Manning

Comparing last season to this season is like comparing apples and oranges as far as MK Dons head coach Liam Manning is concerned.

Just three of the team who faced Wycombe Wanderers in the play-off semi-final second leg in May took to Portman Road on Saturday in the 3-0 drubbing by Ipswich Town, effectively four games later, as Manning suffered his biggest away humbling since taking over a year ago.

After finishing third in League One last season, pushing the automatic promotion fight right to the wire, Manning has urged his new-look squad to forget the club’s achievements of last year, especially in light of making the worst start to a season since the club was established in 2004.

“We got so used to winning last season, but we have to forget about last season,” he said. “We've got to get it out of our heads because this is a new group, and a new season.

“None of us like the feeling or intentionally go out and perform like we did on Saturday but we have to quickly suck out the experience from it and put it right tomorrow and get back to our levels.

“It has been a tough start, starting with Cambridge on their tough pitch with their consistent team, and then two fo the biggest teams with the biggest budgets in the league. We're in an early stage, we're still getting up to speed but that's no excuse.

“After Sheffield Wednesday, we performed to our levels, we created some good chances, whereas at Ipswich for as good as they were, a lot of it was down to us being poor.

“We reflect on it, we're honest, we won't hide, we'll have difficult reflections but we've got to make sure it won't happen again.”