MK Dons are a good team but not yet a great one, says boss
The MK Dons boss wants his side to turn draws into wins this season
Head coach Paul Warne thinks MK Dons are en route to becoming a great League Two side, but are not there yet.
Having picked up eight points from a possible 12 from their opening four league games so far this season, Warne feel there are still improvements to be made before they can consider themselves to be front-runners. So far, seven teams remain unbeaten in the division, with only Crewe Alexandra maintaining a 100 per cent start after four games.
Dons, sitting fifth in the standings at this early stage, face Newport County on Saturday in their third away game of the season off the back of an action-packed 1-1 draw with Crawley Town in the week, a team who until Tuesday had not picked up a point.
Citing that draw, Warne said: “I think an average team loses to Crawley on a Tuesday, a good team gets a point and a great team would win. Currently we’re not a great team but we’re working towards that. It’s unrealistic to think we’ll win every game, but we set up that way.
“You can’t rely on draws away from home, you have to get wins, probably eight or nine. If you just pick up draws, you have more pressure on your home games to win every one of them. The teams that go up automatically win home and away more often than not.”
The draw with Crawley came just three days after Dons’ emphatic 5-0 win over Cheltenham Town at Stadium MK. Despite not picking up all the points against the Reds at the Broadfield Stadium, Warne said he learned more about his side in Sussex given the tense evening it was than he did in the relative comfort of the win leading up to it.
“That (Cheltenham) game drifted, it was over at 3-0 really. It is harder to coach and be too judgy on what happens after it. As a player, you come off the gas a bit.
“In games like Tuesday, you go toe-to-toe until the end and it takes a toll on the players, and shows their psychological strength. When you’re losing, chasing, we want to see if they have the courage to still get on the ball, to cross, to make a mistake. And when we get the goal, do we believe in the team enough to go for another?
“I saw a group who wanted to go for the win. I think I learned a bit more about them. There’s a really good group pulling in the right direction.”