Wigan win will give Dons confidence to win in a different way

Variety is the spice of life and the secret to winning football matches too, according to Liam Manning.

Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic saw MK Dons do something they had not done before this season - give up control of the game.

Wigan had 58 per cent possession at the DW Stadium, which was only the second time Dons have had less of the ball - the other being the 1-0 win over Portsmouth at Stadium MK in September.

Unlike the win over Pompey though, Dons were very much on the back-foot in the second half against Wigan, defending as the hosts threw pressure forwards, even if keeper Andrew Fisher remained fairly untested.

And the difference in Dons’ win on Tuesday night gives head coach Manning confidence his side can repeat the feat if the situation arises again in the future.

“Winning matches in a variety of ways is important,” he said. “Not everyone will have a fantastic performance every week, the team will not be terrific every week, but then you have to fall back on being difficult to beat when the quality is not quite right. We want the ball, and to dominate possession but when it's not quite right, we need that to be engrained.

“We didn't have a lot of the ball which is quite different for us, but we showed a different side to us - we showed discipline in block, a desire to defend and that's important in a long season.

“When we attack, everyone attacks, when we defend, everyone does it. When you look at some of the work Mo (Eisa) put in the other night, recovering and covering for people out of position was terrific. It's a collective effort.

“You've got to stay disciplined and focussed, concentrated. You can never switch off. If you rest at a set-piece, you'll get punished for it. We're trying to maintain high level of focus for long periods.”