Solid foundations should help Dons be a part of the League One promotion battle

Having seen Luton complete back-to-back promotions from League Two to the Championship, Houghton hopes Dons have laid the right foundations in pre-season to put themselves in contention at the right end of the table.

While some may be content with a season of consolidation, Houghton says the squad only have eyes for a promotion battle.

He said: “We’d all love another promotion, that’s what we’re all aiming for make no bones about it, but we’re pretty sensible too. We know it will be a really tough division with a lot of big clubs.

“We have to be solid, be tough to beat and take it from there.

“I’m really excited to be back. It was a really enjoyable season last year. All of us want to do the same this year.

“We want to enjoy it, we want to be up there in and around the promotion and play-off places.

“We need to be hard to score against, it will be difficult though against some top strikers. But if we do not leak goals, it’ll put us in a good position.

“I don’t think we played too well in the first six, eight games but we ground out results and it put us in a good place come November, December.

“We will try to be hard to beat and see where it takes us.”