Wright hints at changes for Dons in Papa John’s Trophy

MK Dons may ring the changes tonight when they take on Cheltenham Town in the Papa John’s Trophy, but want to continue their great recent run of form.

Liam Manning’s side have won four of their last six matches as their form has picked up after a poor start, and want to maintain that winning feeling after their comprehensive 4-0 thumping of Morecambe on Saturday.

But having played eight games in the first month of the campaign, assistant first-team coach David Wright said while they will want to maintain the winning formula, some players will benefit greater having a break, allowing others to come into the side.

“It's game after game after game at the moment, so we need to see how the players have recovered from the weekend,” he said. “Some people need to recover, some need game time, and others need pushing. There are numerous things we take in when we pick a team and that's what we'll be doing.

“We're coming off a really good result and we want to continue that, we want to reach that performance level again. We want to perform well against Cheltenham and if we can, hopefully it will be a positive result.”

The recent wins over Watford and Morecambe have seen Dons resemble the form and fluidity they showed last season when they swept to third in League One and for Wright, it shows the hard work done over pre-season to embed the new players is starting to bear fruit.

He said: “There have been patches in the opening few games where we were good but didn't it all right. And then in the last few games, it looks like we're starting to put it all togther. At the weekend, there was some great stuff and it looked like us and how we want ot play.

“We're always striving for perfection even though it's a myth, but the players were saying 'I played well but...' and they are hungry to improve and learn. It's great that we won't rest, we'll keep striving to get better and better.

“There aren't many times you'd win 4-0 and have a 'but' at the end of it. We looked more like us, and that's great because we give the players a lot of information and their understanding is improving and they want to get better.”