Twine is a marked man after sensational September earns him awards nod

“He’s set a benchmark for him now, but you could see that on Saturday he is a bit of a marked man now”

Scott Twine will need to adjust to his new-found attention from opposing teams after a sensational September earned him a nomination for League One Player of the Month.

Twine, 22, has been a star man for Dons this season as he leads the scoring charts with six - aided greatly by his excellent hat-trick against Fleetwood Town last week - while he also scored and provided two assists in the 4-1 win over Gillingham.

Head coach Liam Manning, who was nominated for the Manager of the Month gong, said Twine has been a revelation at Stadium MK this season, but will now have to contend with teams paying him extra attention to prevent him from having as much impact as he has thus far.

“It's a huge compliment to him that teams want to try and find ways of stopping him,” he said. “He’s set a benchmark for him now, but you could see that on Saturday he is a bit of a marked man now.

Ultimately he's got to raise his game and be intelligent enough to solve the problem of how he can keep impacting games.

“For us as a team, we have to understand that. When we play against a block, like we have in recent games, people like Twiney and Troy want touches but even before the game, when we play teams like that, we know they won't get as many.

“He needs to keep up that level of impact even if it means not getting as many touches. He's done so well but there are areas that excite me to make him even better.”

On Twine’s nomination, Manning added: “It's thoroughly deserved after what he achieved in September. Things happen so quickly in the game and it's difficult to reflect, but he should be extremely proud for being nominated.

“Now though, he should want to go again, sustain it and keep getting put forward for it again.”