Relegation threat still has Dons looking over their shoulders

Despite moving even further away from the bottom three in League One on Saturday, MK Dons' party line remains - avoid relegation.

Rhys Healey's 11th goal of the season saw them beat bottom club Bolton 1-0 at Stadium MK, and though the remain 18th in the standings, the gap to Tranmere Rovers, who were beaten 3-1 by Wycombe, is now more than four victories - and Rovers have only won five all year.

Manager Russell Martin, whose side are now are now five unbeaten - their longest unbeaten run in a year - remains fully focussed on his main objective though, and said he will not stop looking at the drop zone until it is mathematically impossible to drop into it.

He said: "We are five unbeaten, we have a bit of momentum, we've got belief but the focus still has to be on us. I won't be happy until we're mathematically safe. We cannot settle for this, we have to be better. Hopefully we will keep improving as a group.

"We were coming from so far back and teams who have made good starts are slipping away. Our aim is to stay up, and after that we'll see where it takes us. At the end of the season, I'll tell you whether I'm happy with it or not!"

Having picked up 11 points from a possible 15, Dons can feel somewhat aggrieved to still be only three places outside the relegation zone, despite the huge points difference between themselves and Tranmere in 21st.

But according to captain Dean Lewington: "It shows how much trouble we were in when Russ took over. Seven wins out of eight at home is good going, so to only be 18th is still quite surprising.

"We'd like to keep it going as long as we can and it's pushing us away from the relegation zone. We need to keep going until it's mathematically impossible to go down. We want to keep building, but we want to get to safety and assess where we are."

And he too says Dons cannot afford to think they are out of the woods when it comes to the threat of relegation.

"We have to have that mentality because we've been down there all season," he continued. "We are looking up, and there are teams we think we can catch, but we're only a couple of results away from looking over our shoulders again.

"The first results we go in and check are those teams behind us, we want to make sure we're not even in contention with the last few months to go."