Williams still believes MK Dons can challenge for promotion

With the Dons sitting 15th in the Sky Bet League One table, and 11 points off the top six, that may seem a long shot.

But Williams was part of the Barnsley side that produced a remarkable run in the second half of the 2015/16 season to win promotion to the Championship.

Speaking after the Dons had thrown away a half-time lead to lose 2-1 atDoncaster Rovers last weekend, Williams insisted: “The aim is still to get into the play-offs.

“I was at Barnsley, and we were rock bottom at Christmas and still got promoted.

“Anything is possible in this league if you get a run of results together, so we are not panicking just yet.”

At half-time at the Keepmoat last Saturday all was looking positive, with Dons leading 1-0 thanks to Chuks Aneke’s early goal and in dominant form.

But the second half saw Dons disintegrate and slip to a defeat, and Williams was offering no excuses.

“It is really disappointing, as I thought in the first half we were brilliant,” he said.

“It was one of the best away performances we have put in during the first half, and then in the second half it wasn’t acceptable, and we weren’t good enough.

“We didn’t fight enough in the second half, and ultimately we lost the game which we are very disappointed about.

“It is hard to put a finger on what went wrong, but Doncaster just came at us in the second half. I think we outplayed them first half, they must have rallied the troops at half-time and we didn’t stand up to it ultimately.

“We have to look at ourselves and know that it is not good enough.

“All we can do now is put that behind us, and really step up and make sure we right this wrong, firstly on Saturday in the FA Cup and then in the league.”

And he added: “You have to try and draw positives from every game, and in the first half we were brilliant.

“We played the ball round well and were really in their faces, but we know that football is a 90-minute game, it is not 45 minutes, so we need to pick it up.”

Williams also believes it is crucial that the Dons learn to finish off teams when they are on top, as they should have done at Doncaster.

“At 1-0 you are always riding your luck a bit, because a goal can changes the game and changes momentum,” he said.

“We should really try and put the knife to teams, especially as on Saturday we scored so early, after just three minutes.

“That means it is 87 minutes, or 90-odd minutes left, it is hard to keep a team out for that long.

“So we do need to try and put teams to the sword and get that second goal, that would have changed the game dramatically last weekend.”