No obvious fixes to overcome Dons' early goals curse

Richard Keogh shows his frustration after Portsmouth score

Early goals have got to become a thing of the past, but there is not an obvious fix according to Jordan Houghton.

In eight of their 13 League One encounters this season, Dons have conceded inside the opening 15 minutes, and only once have they gone on to win the game. On Saturday, Hull had found the net twice, after Dons had done the hard work of getting back into the game to equalise at 1-1.

With Dons sitting 17th in the table, Houghton and Russell Martin both know the problem of giving teams headstarts is threatening to ruin their season already. The solution though isn't an obvious one.

"I don’t think you can put your finger on it exactly or you would just stop it," he said. "Even teams like Man City have really struggled in both boxes in terms of defending and scoring. Everything in between is perfect – and that’s sort of like us. We look controlled and comfortable but in those critical moments we are letting ourselves down.

"We are on a good track now and we are slowly improving in those areas. Hopefully, the more we look solid from the back and more controlled we look – we can concentrate on the final third even more.

"You can’t put your finger on it exactly, but it’s a combination of a few things that we will look to improve and hopefully not keep conceding early goals as it does kill us in games. It gives teams the chance to sit back and makes it so much more difficult for ourselves."

Despite their defeat to Hull on Saturday, Houghton believes Dons are getting closer to being the team Martin has in mind.

He said: "I wouldn’t say we’ve nailed it yet because that’s when you win any game you play. It’s clicking in terms of we look like a solid team we conceded three at the weekend which is disappointing. But the average over the last few games we look solid and we have controlled games.

"We look threatening up top, we have had games where we’ve not created as many chances as we like, but I feel we did create a lot on Saturday. When a team defends and looks to counter it can be difficult to break them down. We’re on the right track for sure though."