Manning will have an eye on Tuesday’s games as automatic spot remains on the table

Liam Manning admitted his side did all they needed to to not only beat Morecambe 2-0 at Stadium MK on Saturday, but to keep alive their hopes of automatic promotion next week.

While Harry Darling and Daniel Harvie goals ensured the three points against the Shrimps, Rotherham came from behind to beat Oxford United 2-1 at the New York Stadium, while Wigan Athletic dropped more points by only drawing with Plymouth.

It means Dons’ watching brief on Tuesday night, when the Millers face a trip to play-off hopefuls Sunderland and the Latics take on Portsmouth at Fratton Park, will still have everything riding on it - not just as potential top-two candidates but with an outside chance of the League One title as well.

Typical of Dons’ head coach though, he said while his team will have eyes on how the games unfold on Tuesday night, they will not get too carried away by what happens.

“We'll look at it,” he admitted. “We control what we can control, and that was responding today by winning the game. It's important not to forget how far we've come.

“Where the team finished last season and where they're at now is remarkable. The players deserve all the plaudits. There is a huge amount of hours and manpower that goes into it, and we've got to step back and appreciate the bigger picture and see how much progress has been made.”

On the fairly routine win over Morecambe, he said: “We had really good control throughout the game. We were difficult to beat, I don't remember them having a chance, and that platform of being hard to beat and owning the middle of the pitch served us well today.

“We passed with quality, and showed some good passages. We had a threat throughout and looked to hurt them all the time.

“We had some nearly moments but I'm really pleased with the response from the last two defeats. I had confidence we'd react like that today. The team ethic, culture, togetherness and respect we showed this week meant we were able to bounce back like that.

“We just needed a bit more quality in the final third. In both halves, we got into some dangerous areas but didn't quite make enough of it. But we did enough and that's the most important thing.”