Time, and history, is still on MK Dons' side in promotion race

MK Dons’ promotion chances this season seem to diminish by the week, but Scott Lindsey will not be giving up lightly.

Saturday’s defeat to Bromley, their eighth in 12 games, leaves Dons 10 points from the play-off spots with 17 games and 51 points still on offer. It will be a massive achievement to get close to it at this point, but it is not completely out of the question. Lindsey knows that first-hand.

Last season, his Crawley Town side were sat 13th in the table at this stage and reached the play-offs on the final day, while Doncaster Rovers were 19th and made it in in emphatic fashion.

Citing other examples down the years too, Lindsey said there is no reason why Dons cannot be the side who springs the late surprise this season.

“In 2020, Bolton were 13th and got automatic promotion,” the head coach said. “Northampton did it the year before that. There is someone every year, sometimes two teams. Someone can come and have a late surge, and we're good enough to do that.

“I won't give up hope until it's mathematically impossible, we've just got to keep going.”

With several new faces introduced to the squad over the January transfer window, Lindsey said it would naturally take time for the side to gel properly, and their teething problems showed during the loss to Bromley.

He said: “You can't put a team together and expect them to go out and play like Brazil, it doesn't happen like that. But I still expected us to come away with a positive result today.

“We had a really positive 'reset' meeting earlier this week, I spoke, the chairman spoke and the players came out really positive. I felt we played reasonably well, but we didn't show enough intent to win it.

“We were ponderous and slow. Consequently, we don't create enough. We have to have more guile and knowhow to break down a block. “