Miles on the road are no excuse for Dons ahead of Exeter City trip

After the long trip to Morecambe last weekend, MK Dons are on the road again, this time heading south, to take on Exeter City on Saturday. Long journeys though are not an excuse Liam Manning is willing to use.

Dons will rack up around 5,000 miles on the road this term, with almost 800 of them coming in these back-to-back League One encounters.

But Exeter City and their supporters will clock up more than 9,000 miles this term, with Manning left counting his blessings on the coach journey down to St James Park.

He said: “It'll be about 25 hours on the coach in a week, so that's good from whoever arranged the fixtures! Everyone has to do it, where we are geographically is not a bad thing so I'm not going to moan about the trips when you see what Exeter have to do.

“We've had to manage what we're doing this week to be ready for another long trip and to perform as best we can.”

Taking on Exeter for the first time in his managerial career, Manning is no stranger to Grecians manager Matt Taylor having completed his pro-licence alongside the 40-year-old. A former Exeter player, Taylor took over from Paul Tisdale in 2018 when the long-term manager departed for Stadium MK where he led Dons to promotion back to the third tier.

Exeter had to wait until last season to finally get back to into League One, but they have made a strong start to life in the division, with two wins, two draws and two defeats to their name as they sit ninth.

“I know exactly what we're walking into” Manning continued. “It'll be a tough game, we'll need to be at our maximum to get something out of it.

“I know Matt Taylor well, I did my pro-licence with him so I speak to him regularly. He's a really good guy who has done an outstanding job there.

“Taking over from someone who had been there for a long time, it's never easy to follow but they got promoted and he has done an outstanding job.”