Don’t let smiles disguise MK Dons’ determination

Warren O’Hora celebrates the win over Cambridge, thanks to his goal at the Abbey Stadium

There have been a lot of smiling faces at Stadium MK recently but behind those smiles remains a steeliness and a focus not to let their opportunity of promotion to the Championship slip.

Saturday’s 1-0 win over Cambridge United saw Dons move within four points of top spot as Rotherham lost 3-0 at home to Shrewsbury, extending the unbeaten run for Liam Manning’s side to 12 matches.

With seven games to go, Dons are right in the fight for a top-two finish. But while the celebrations after the game at the Abbey Stadium were enjoyed by the large travelling Dons support, the players are already looking up the road to the next game.

“We all know what the table looks like but we’ve got a job to do every Saturday,” said Warren O’Hora, whose second goal of the season earned Dons the win over Cambridge.

“It doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere when we cross the white line. We set out to win every game no matter how big or where they are in the league, we need as many points as we can and we’ll look at it at the end.

“We’re being pushed to our limits, and we’ve still got more gears to go.

“We’re in this form at the moment, and we just want to bang games out and see how we go.”

Dons’ run since the turn of the year has been nothing short of sensational, with just one defeat in 17 League One games now, and it comes after wholesale changes in January too, which saw nine players depart and seven come in.

Rather than disrupting the flow though, O’Hora said the injection of new characters and ability into the team at the start of the year has only helped push the team to a new level.

He said: “The quality has been unbelievable and the lads who came in in January have pushed us on even more.

“We needed that push - we lost a lot of bodies and we needed new ones in. Now those two have been called up to be internationals and it shows they’re doing something right for us.

“They’ve settled in really well too, and it looks like they’ve been here all season. They’ve been brilliant on and off the pitch.”