Luke Chadwick insists it’s important he and his teammates start helping striker Patrick Bamford, by getting on the scoresheet themselves in the coming games.
The Chelsea starlet has been in tremendous form since arriving on loan at MK Dons this summer and is currently the joint-top goalscorer in the country, alongside Championship stars Danny Ings and James Vaughan, with 11 goals to his name.
Bamford, 20, has netted half of the Dons’ 18 goals in the League so far this season and is a mighty seven strikes ahead of his nearest competitor for the Club’s Top Goalscorer award, Shaun Williams.
Therefore Chadwick, the man often found playing behind Bamford on a Saturday afternoon, is keen to accompany the youngster by adding more goals to his game and wants his fellow forwards to do the same.
Speaking to the media earlier this week, Chadwick said: “Patrick’s certainly got the potential to be a top, top player and ever since the first day he turned up to training I’ve always thought we’ve done well to get this lad.
“Last year we had a few injury problems but this season he’s certainly showing what he can do with a run of fitness and he seems to be scoring in every game. He’s got a great opportunity to go far in the game, if he continues to work hard. He’s got a great attitude and I think we’d all be very proud if one day we saw him playing at the top level.
“He is scoring most of our goals this season whereas last year they were coming from all over the park. We were a lot more settled back then whereas the injury problems to our key players, especially the wide players, has had an effect as they’re not able to chip in.
“We certainly do need to start chipping in with more goals all over the team but long may Patrick’s form continue with that as well.”
It was a Bamford goal which got the Dons off to the perfect start away at League leaders Leyton Orient on Saturday before two goals either side of half-time saw Karl Robinson’s men walk away empty-handed for the third game in a row.
Chadwick, disappointed to have lost another important League encounter away at Orient, is itching to put things right this weekend at home to Rotherham United.
He added: “It’s massively disappointing to lose any football game so when you go through a week like we’ve just had – 4 defeats in 5 if you include the Peterborough game, it’s just not acceptable for a Club that’s looking to get promoted this season.
“We’ve done well at home this season and got some good results but the last few weeks away have been disappointing. There have been some strange games but its pointless making excuses now, the games have been lost and we can’t change that now.
“We’ve got a massive game on Saturday against a good team and we need to get three points, without a doubt. It’s the first Saturday, Tuesday we’ve had in the League in a while and both of them we’ll be looking to win. If we can two wins out of these two, everything will be rosy again and we’ll be back up in the play-offs fighting for the top spots again.
“Morale is still high and I’d say we’ve got the best team spirit and togetherness at the moment than we’ve ever had at the Club since I’ve been here. If we can start adding results to that then that’ll only go from strength to strength as well.”