Manning wants Dons to feed off the energy of a big Stadium MK crowd

With a large travelling contingent headed from Derby to Milton Keynes tomorrow, Liam Manning hopes his side can thrive off the atmosphere at Stadium MK and get their league campaign back on track.

Having picked up four points from a possible six prior to their cup break last week, Dons are still in the bottom four of League One and take on a Derby County side sat seventh ahead of the game tomorrow.

The Rams have sold out their allocation of more than 6,500 tickets for the relatively short hop from Pride Park, and are expected to make for a bustling atmosphere on only their second trip to MK1.

With Dons’ performances on the up in recent weeks though, Manning hopes his side will thrive off the energy in the game from both sets of supporters when taking on Paul Warne’s side.

“The energy is really important,” he said. “Players feed off atmosphere and energy. Having big support helps the players.

“The fans who were at the cup games were really good at getting behind us, and we have to make sure to give the fans something to get behind tomorrow. We’ll try to get on the front foot early, impose ourselves on the game and see what happens.

“They're a huge club with big recent history, some high-level players and a terrific coaching staff. We know it'll be tough, it's a challenge but these are the ones we should relish with the way we're playing at the moment. Stepping out there, being confident, and we should back ourselves to go and get a result.”

Plenty to work on despite upturn

While Dons are four unbeaten in all competitions, keeping clean sheets in each of them, head coach Manning is not getting too carried away yet.

Wins over non-league Taunton Town in the FA Cup and League One strugglers Morecambe in the Carabao Cup aside, their position in the league standings is still a precarious one with Derby set to pose a tough test for Manning’s men.

Performances though have taken an upturn in the last month, but Manning says they are by no means out of the woods yet.

He said: “I won't sit here and say we've cracked it, there's still a long way to go and no game is a given. We've started to make progress, have an understanding of what it looks like and how we can control, dominate and impose our style on the game. We've done it a lot better in recent weeks.

“It's never smooth, we're over the hill and now we've cracked it. You make progress and move forward, which we have done, but it doesn't mean it's going to continue on that upward trajectory. We have to understand how to be successful, and a big part of that is the mental aspect. Not to be reactive but proactive. How we want to play is difficult but when we get it right, it's sometimes impossible to stop.

“Just because we've had a few results, we're not the finished article. We've still got a huge amount of work to do. We've done our best to keep them in a good spot after a bad run, and we'll continue to do that on this journey.”