Dean Lewington wants the Dons to be the first team to beat League leaders Leyton Orient, when they make the trip to Matchroom Stadium tomorrow.
Karl Robinson’s side visit the home of the unbeaten O’s on Saturday looking to return to winning ways after suffering back-to-back defeats for the first time this season.
The Dons have struggled away from home this campaign, having only picked up one win and two draws from their opening six road games but Lewington is confident the side has what it takes to topple the early pace-setters.
Speaking ahead of the match, the Dons skipper said: “Leyton Orient managed to keep a settled side this summer and I think their first game of the season against Carlisle started them off on what was to be a good run.
“Confidence is a massive thing in football, especially in this League with such fine margins and if you can be really confident going into a game it’ll often be enough to get you over the line. I think we’ve seen that with Orient against a few teams where you predicted they might get unstuck.
“They’re doing well but last year we faced Tranmere in a similar situation and nobody expected us to get anything from them and we did. Saturday is an opportunity for us to take (Leyton Orient’s) unbeaten record and we want to do that. We want to be the first team to beat them.
“They’re an attacking team who put a lot of balls into the box and they’re pretty old fashioned in that way they go out wide look to get crosses in. We’ve seem to have played against the same two strikers there for three or four years but now and all of sudden they seem to have caught on fire so it is just a case of being watchful.”
If the Dons are to cause an upset and be the first side in the League to take three points off Russell Slade’s men this season, they’ll have to perform much better than they did in mid-week against Stevenage.
Despite taking the lead at Lamex Stadium, the men from MK1 conceded twice in a disappointing second half and subsequently bowed out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, a competition the manger set his stall out to do well in at the beginning of the year.
Lewington, who was the only player Robinson publicly praised in his post-match interview after the game, admits several home truths were dished out at full-time but is confident the team can bounce back having learned from their mistakes.
He added: “There were periods in the game where we looked in control and it was fine but that period after half-time just wasn’t good enough.
“In a strange way, you can sometimes benefit from periods like that because a few home truths can be said in the dressing room afterwards and you can clear the air a little bit. We’re just grateful it wasn’t in a League and hopefully something good can come out of it.
“We’re an honest bunch and we’re under no illusions that we’re better than what we are. Most people knew that Tuesday was below par and those that didn’t know as much certainly got told.
“It was also a good opportunity for Karl to set a marker having not lost many games this year and the ones we have lost, we’ve played really well in. In the Peterborough and Gillingham games there were circumstances surrounding the defeat but Stevenage was probably the first real bad performance.
“It happens, we’ve learnt from it and we’ll move on.”
