Parrott challenged to rediscover his early season form for Dons

Liam Manning has backed Troy Parrott to rediscover the form which saw him star for MK Dons at the start of the season.

The 19-year-old hit the ground running after signing on loan from Tottenham in the summer. His performances were lively and energetic, and often produced goals, with two in his first three outings.

His progress though has been stunted and his form has fallen away, but his time with the squad has been equally disrupted with international duty and Covid protocols keeping him out of games.

Parrott’s showings on the pitch have been sporadic recently, but while there were lively appearances off the bench, his reckless red card in stoppage time against Leyton Orient, highlighted a ‘lack of discipline’ in the mind of Dons’ head coach Manning.

Coming on with 23 minutes to go against Plymouth on Wednesday, Parrott immediately took the bull by the horns and gave Dons more attacking impetus and struck the bar within minutes of being on.

Still very early in his career, Manning has called for Parrott to rediscover some consistency in his performances on and off the pitch but backs the Irish international to do so.

The head coach said: “I told Troy his challenge is to maintain it and turning potential into performance consistently, day-in and day-out. That comes down to hard work resilience, focus and playing with discipline

“Troy is still early on his journey. He's 19, which isn't an excuse for how his season has gone. He had a great start, had a slight dip for various reasons, he was away on international duty, then he had the Covid protocols and a couple of other bits have been little set backs and challenges.

“This is his first breakthrough season where he has strung together games at the start of the season. I have no doubts Troy will get back to the level he showed at the beginning of the season.

“He showed really good glimpses of it on Wednesday night, and I see it in training too.”