Ruthless Dons ‘could be better than that’ after thrashing Morecambe

Despite their most comprehensive win of the season on Saturday, Liam Manning side his MK Dons side still have more to come.

The 4-0 thrashing of Morecambe came in comprehensive fashion, with Will Grigg’s first-half brace putting them in control before two goals in five second-half minutes from Conor Grant and Matt Dennis wrapped it up.

The win lifts Dons to 13th in these early stages of League One, out of the relegation zone for the first time since the opening day of the season.

And speaking with his players afterwards, Manning said they still have extra gears to find.

“Speaking with the lads afterwards, they said we can be better than that,” he said. “And we want to keep improving.

“It was a good performance, some positive elements and we carried a real threat which has progressively got better in all of the games so far. We showed really good quality with the goals, and spells where we looked like we've wanted to.

“By no means are we there yet, there is still work to do but I'm really happy for the players. It has been a really tough start with the transition, the games, some of the performances and results but what we preached a lot last year - never too high and never too low.

“We're starting get these players back again now, we've got the new faces settled but it still takes time. We won't get ahead of ourselves but we've seen some really good performances out there.”

After a hamstring injury forced him out of three games, Grigg’s comeback goals - his third first goals for the club after making his permanent move in the summer - pleased Manning, who was delighted for his striker to be back amongst the scorers before being rested at the break.

He added: “They're both typical Griggy goals, one's he thrives off. We worked ourselves into those good areas to be able to get it to him. The quality in the crosses was terrific as were the finishes.

“It will do him the world of good, because it has been really stop-start for him since signing and he's been frustrated with that, but he was really good in that first half.”