Manning pleased to see progress in MK Dons’ training this week

A week on the training ground has been a rare opportunity for MK Dons head coach Liam Manning to see his side outside of a meeting room this season.

Last week, Manning said his side have had just six weeks this season where they have been able to train without a midweek game.

And since the Portsmouth game last week, Dons have been able to spend a week preparing for today’s (Saturday) game with fellow League One strugglers Burton Albion.

“It's extremely rare, but extremely welcome,” said Manning. “We've been able to spread out preparation throughout the week for tomorrow's game, and have time out on the grass to work on things.

“It means you can work at a different intensity, not having to cram in as many meetings into a short period of time. It has been a good week.

“It's a good opportunity because the schedule is so intense. It's good to be able to train and see people's behaviours in training, to be able to see the transfer from meeting into training which you don't always see.

“If you challenge someone with something in training, you can see the progress. It has been good to see everyone training this week.”

Winning at home

Wins at Stadium MK have been hard to come by this season, especially in the league. In fact, Dons have won just once at home in League One all term.

After good, but ultimately fruitless games against Derby County and Wycombe Wanderers though, Manning hopes their fortunes at MK1 will turn with back-to-back games against Burton and Fleetwood Town.

He continued: “We want to make this a tough place to come. The size and quality of the pitch we have here helps the way we play. And we want to give the fans here something to cheer about.

“Even though we lost last week, the fans at Portsmouth knew and understood the dominance we had in the game.

“We have to put on a performance like that, make a few tweaks in attack and give the fans something to get behind.”