Nothing to panic about as Dons suffer their first blip under Manning

After tasting back-to-back defeats, Liam Manning insists he is not too concerned by MK Dons’ ‘slight blip’ at the moment.

Head coach Manning was named Manager of the Month for September, but the fabled curse appears to have taken another victim with Dons losing twice this month to relegation scrappers Doncaster Rovers and Shrewsbury Town.

With a trip to third-placed Wigan Athletic coming up tomorrow night, and then hosting fifth-placed Rotherham this Saturday, it will be a tough week for Manning’s side but after a strong start to his tenure at Stadium MK, the head coach says there is nothing to get overly concerned by following his side’s recent defeats.

“It’s a slight blip but nothing which concerns me. There are no panic stations from me,” he said.

“When things were going so well early on, in the back of my head I knew at some point we'd face a moment like this. It's nothing drastic when you look the two games - I think we were much better against Shrewsbury than we were against Doncaster. We showed progress in how we started and controlled the game.

“I know the players are disappointed and frustrated with the results but its not about getting too high or too low. The emotions after a game are important, you should feel disappointed and frustrated to come away from Saturday without three points, but you cannot sit and dwell on it for too long.

“We just have to tweak some of the finer things in and around the box to turn that from a 1-0 loss to a comfortable victory.

“It's now about turning those types of games into wins, and that's just down to developing and being better versions of ourselves.”