Manning looks at the bigger picture after difficult Fleetwood draw

A point in miserable conditions at Fleetwood on Tuesday night was more than acceptable for MK Dons head coach Liam Manning.

Dons let slip an early lead, courtesy of Harry Darling’s sixth goal of the season on 12 minutes after heading home Scott Twine’s free-kick, when Paddy Lane fired past Jamie Cumming five minutes after the restart.

But relentless rainfall over the last few days in Lancashire almost called the game completely, with large puddles and sticky patches on the Highbury Stadium surface hampering both sides.

But on a night which saw several other promotion hopefuls drop points in defeat, Dons’ share of the spoils saw them draw level with Wigan in second place in League One, and vitally for Manning, kept up their recent unbeaten run.

“You've got to step back and see the bigger picture,” he said. “To come to a really difficult place like this and have an air of disappointment to come away with a point shows the progress we've made. I'm fully aware coming away with a point is not a bad thing in these conditions.

“It was a really tough evening. You look at the pitch, the rain that has been up here but we played some brave stuff. We made some good decisions of where and when to play, and we did some hood stuff on a difficult pitch.

“The second half was frustrating - the conditions got a little bit worse and I think we tried to play too quickly and too much at times.

“It was pretty brutal at times, and fair play to the referee for letting it continue. I thought he showed a lot of common sense. It was difficult but it was playable.

“We had a couple of chances but it as so difficult. There was enough there to go and win the game.”