“We’re in a scrap”: Manning reacts to Dons going bottom of the league

Liam Manning said there is ‘no point’ in worrying about the league table at the moment after MK Dons sunk to the bottom of League One with their fifth consecutive defeat on Saturday.

Nick Freeman’s strike five minutes before half-time ensured Wycombe Wanderers piled more pressure on the head coach despite a much-improved performance which arguably deserved at least a point at Stadium MK.

But while there were chances for Louie Barry, Will Grigg, Matt Dennis and Daniel Harvie, Dons drew a blank.

Wins for Morecambe and Burton too compounded the misery, leaving Dons rock bottom of the league with five straight beating. But Manning was defiant at full-time.

“There is no point getting down about it, it's wasted energy,” he said. “I’m not looking at the table yet, for me it’s about changing the results and the run we’re on.

“We're in a scrap, in a fight. I'm up for that fight and the players have to be as well. We'll get them in on Monday and correct it this week.”

‘We can’t be nearly’

Despite putting in arguably their best performance at Stadium MK this season, it was a case of so close yet so far for Manning.

While they had enough chances to win the game by a stretch, Wycombe too were perhaps unlucky not to win by a bigger margin, with Sam Vokes and Gareth McCleary both missing sitters to put the game to bed.

And with Dons failing to score to draw Wycombe out in the second half, Manning said his side cannot continue to be ‘nearly’ much more.

He said: “The performance will give the group a lift, but I think you have to take the chances you create. We had loads of nearly moments and that's where we're at - nearly scored, nearly a good performance, nearly finished some good moves, nearly defended well. And we have to change that soon and quickly.

“We can't be nearly, we have to execute.

“That's us a bit a the moment. For the first 35 minutes I thought we were excellent in terms of our bravery, playing our way, the chances we created. But you have to be ruthless and if we were in form and confident, we'd take those chances. That's the difficulty.

“And we were better, against a really challenging, physical side who make it difficult for you and we showed a lot of quality at times to open them up. We should have had a penalty as well.”