Pre-season talk now starting to show after MK Dons win third in a row

Winning three games in a week is helping MK Dons skipper Alex Gilbey look at the League Two table in a more positive light after their slow start to the season.

Dons came from behind for the first time since April to win 3-1 against Grimsby Town on Saturday, converting their six-point haul picked up against Morecambe an Accrington Stanley in a nine-point gathering as they climbed into ninth spot, just one point outside the play-off spots.

With many backing Dons to be the main contenders for the League Two crown this season, their poor start to the campaign threatened to leave egg on the faces of many at the club, but Gilbey said the table and their current run of form is starting to back up their pre-season claims.

“It's massive,” he said after the win at Blundell Park. “We've done a lot of talking this season but haven't backed it up, from the first game of the season. But we've won three tough games in a week, and now it's a bit nicer to look at the table rather than thinking 'what are we doing?' and we know where we want to be.”

The skipper, who also welcomed a new baby daughter into the world earlier this week, scored the equaliser against Grimsby on Saturday to back up his goal against Accrington on Tuesday to cap an excellent week. But it was a poor start to the game in Lincolnshire as they fell behind to Danny Rose’s 16th minute goal as Grimsby dominated much of the opening half.

Two goals in seven second-half minutes though turned the game on it’s head, with Scott Hogan firing Dons ahead not long after Gilbey’s equaliser before Connor Lemonheigh-Evans bagged in stoppage time to make sure of the result.

Gilbey continued: “It's a brilliant week, obviously I had a lot on! We got three points on Tuesday, then had a really good day on Thursday with my family, and now another big win today.

“We started really slowly, and the first half-an-hour was not good enough. We had a lot of build-up but we were too slow. The gaffer just told us to take the handbrake off and to have it. We started the second-half really fast, and we managed it well. We've got real men in the team now, the gaffer has drilled it into us.

“We haven't come from behind for a while, so there is always that pressure on us. Especially after two wins earlier this week, we wanted to back it up with a third, and we've done that. We're over the moon.”