Paul Warne spoke ahead of Sunday’s game with Chesterfield

Even a win over Chesterfield on Sunday will see MK Dons come up shy of their Christmas target of eight points from four games.

New Year’s Day’s defeat to Colchester leaves them sat on four after three games, having beaten Swindon and drawn with Notts County in the final embers of 2025.

Taking on the Spireites on Sunday (kicking off at midday), Dons face another of their promotion rivals with Paul Cook’s side only a point adrift of Paul Warne’s at the start of play.

Speaking ahead of the game, Warne admitted the schedule over the festive period is a struggle for clubs up and down the country, but a seven point return would still leave his side in good shape heading into the second-half of the season.

“It has been chaotic,” he said. “I thought eight points over the four games would be a good return, I know Christmas is crazy and you get freak results, but the best we can get now is seven.”

No stranger to Cook’s teams over the years, coming up against him on eight previous occasions (only Darrell Clarke and Darren Moore has he faced more often), Warne says he knows what to expect from Chesterfield and knows his side will have their work cut out for them, especially after the sides shared a 1-1 draw earlier in the campaign.

He said: “I like playing against Cookie, I’ve played against him loads of times. We know each other’s teams pretty well. His teams don’t come and sit behind the ball, they want to win so I think it will be an entertaining game.

“I still lose sleep over that corner, it was a disaster how we conceded there. It was a good game up there, but we are both two different teams now. Hopefully, we can freshen the team up and get the fans right behind us.

“We’ve been really good at home, and we’ll have to be at our best to beat another team right up there. They’ll bring a few fans, it’ll make for a better atmosphere and a better game.”