'We won’t leave no stone unturned' was the rallying cry from Karl Robinson, as his side go in search of an important victory against Shrewsbury Town tonight.
The Dons go into the game this evening unbeaten in their last six League outings but still 10 points adrift of the play-off places, albeit with a game in hand.
The stalemate with Sheffield United last weekend was the Club’s sixth draw this calendar year and manager Robinson was keen to stress the importance of picking up maximum points, as his side head towards the business end of the season.
Speaking ahead of the game, the 32-year-old said: “I think it’s fair to say that all our hard-work on Saturday will be lost if we don’t beat Shrewsbury.
“We’ve taken four points from the top two teams in this League. That’s frustrating for us because we haven’t been consistently taking points off teams like that and we really need to start doing so.
“We’re on 51 points at the moment and 72 points has been enough to reach the play-offs in the last few years. We need to find 21 points, 7 wins, from our last 11 games, which is a big ask, but this team is capable of doing it.
“I’ve always said that I want to break the Club record of eight consecutive victories and if I’m ever going to do it, I couldn’t find a better time to pull it off than now.
“We’re getting some players back now, although we’ve lost Luke Chadwick. We’ve got Stephen Gleeson getting back to fitness and Patrick Bamford once again in the squad. Chris Lines is getting to a fantastic level of performance and the back four have been consistent.
“The team’s getting stronger and stronger and so we’re not in a place where we’re feeling down and feeling sorry for ourselves. We’re in a very positive place and we’ve got a goal in mind and that’s to get into the play-offs.
“We’re having a good spell at the moment and we’ve got some momentum but we just need to hope some teams above us have a dip while we put a run together.
“It’s all ‘if’, ‘buts’ and ‘maybes’ but one thing I can promise is that we won’t leave no stone unturned. I’m committed to this cause of trying to get out of the League and this game is a pivotal part of that. If we do win then we’ll need 18 points from 10 games and that becomes a lot more achievable.”
If the Dons are to begin their climb up the League table this evening, then they may, once again, have to do it without goalkeeper David Martin, who is still nursing a back complaint which has kept him out of action for two weeks.
Although disappointed at not have the services of his number one goalkeeper, Robinson was keen to praise his understudy Ian McLoughlin, who has conceded only three goals since being called upon to replace Martin late in the first half against Carlisle United last month.
“Ian deserves a tremendous recognition. To be fair to him, he found it a bit difficult in the first two games while he was getting used to playing in our side but he has adapted brilliantly in the last few games.
“He’s still very young, which is a good thing for us, and he’s become a very reliant number two goalkeeper. His distribution is also getting better which is key.”
