“I don’t really care what others think outside of these four walls”

Paul Warne said he will not be getting carried away after his side’s thumping 5-1 win over Shrewsbury Town on Saturday, even if it makes the rest of the division sit up and pay attention.

Picking up their second win in a row, by their second biggest scoreline, MK Dons moved into the automatic promotion spots, now trailing leaders Bromley and Salford City, led by ex-manager Karl Robinson.

With many expecting Dons to be serious promotion contenders this season, the win was something of a line in the sand but Warne is not ready to count his chickens just yet.

“I’m not one for ‘statement wins’ more ones that help mine and my wife’s anxiety levels!” he said. “A lot of our wins have been by one goals, and there is always the fear that something would happen.

“I don’t really care what others think outside of these four walls, so if the lads get confidence from this game then great, and if others outside are affected when they look at it, so be it.

“It’s just one game, I’m not getting carried away but I did like the way we played today. We were more athletic, more direct at times which asked more difficult questions.”

While the gap to leaders Bromley sits at eight points, Warne admitted he is still ruing the dropped points against Colchester, where Dons conceded a last minute penalty to lose, and Chesterfield where they squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2, which would have seen them three points better off heading into Tuesday night’s home game with Bristol Rovers.

He continued: “I can’t look at the lead and not think about those points we dropped to Chesterfield but every manager will tell you about ten points if they avoided disasters.

“Results have been reasonably kind, and all you can do is look after your own business. I don’t want to keep looking back at the past, but I feel based off our performances, our points total should be higher.

“We’re in a good place, so we just need to keep healthy and happy. No-one will win the next 20 games, we just have to put ourselves in position to get maximum points. We don’t want draws. I’d rather win-win-lose than win-draw-draw.”