Dean Lewington wants the Dons to roll their sleeves up after Saturday’s loss to Queens Park Rangers.
The men from MK1 were beaten 3-0 at Loftus Road, despite frustrating their hosts for the majority of the Sky Bet Championship contest and going agonisingly close to opening the scoring just minutes before the R’s took the lead.
“We’ve got to recognise where we are as a Club,” Lewington told MK Dons PlayerHD after the loss in West London. “We’ve earned the right to come to these places and we’re not going to turn up thinking we’re ‘little MK Dons’ but at the same time, we’re playing against a higher-level of opposition and bigger teams with bigger budgets.
“Now we’ve got these first 12/13 games out of the way we know it’s going to be a long, hard season so people are going to have to roll up their sleeves. We know we’ve got enough to cause teams problems but we know we’re going to have to play games a bit ugly this season.”
It could all of been different for the Dons had they taken the chances that came there way at 0-0 – instead, QPR struck first through Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and were then able to add two more to their lead as the Dons piled men forward in search of an equaliser.
“We spoke after the Huddersfield game about just trying to stick in games. We know we’re not always going to play great, especially away from home but if you do ride it out, maybe you’ll get a chance to win it.
“We just started to do that and we felt the tide was turning. We had a few chances and then the old sucker punch came. It was their first shot on target in the second half. We didn’t come here to lose 1-0 so we were obviously trying to get the equaliser and that left us quite open at the back.
“We found it really hard today but until the 70th minute we thought we could ride it out and get a point. Their crowd started to turn on them and we felt we’d got over the worst of it but then they scored a goal out of nothing.”
Lewington and the Dons will be looking to bounce back on Saturday when they host Hull City at stadiummk in a Family Fun Day clash - tickets are priced at just £12 adults and £1 for under-18s while under-12s can go FREE with a Young Dons membership.
To purchase tickets click here, visit the Box Office at stadiummk/kiosk at thecentre:mk or call 0333 200 5343.
“We’ve got to recognise where we are as a Club,” Lewington told MK Dons PlayerHD after the loss in West London. “We’ve earned the right to come to these places and we’re not going to turn up thinking we’re ‘little MK Dons’ but at the same time, we’re playing against a higher-level of opposition and bigger teams with bigger budgets.
“Now we’ve got these first 12/13 games out of the way we know it’s going to be a long, hard season so people are going to have to roll up their sleeves. We know we’ve got enough to cause teams problems but we know we’re going to have to play games a bit ugly this season.”
It could all of been different for the Dons had they taken the chances that came there way at 0-0 – instead, QPR struck first through Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and were then able to add two more to their lead as the Dons piled men forward in search of an equaliser.
“We spoke after the Huddersfield game about just trying to stick in games. We know we’re not always going to play great, especially away from home but if you do ride it out, maybe you’ll get a chance to win it.
“We just started to do that and we felt the tide was turning. We had a few chances and then the old sucker punch came. It was their first shot on target in the second half. We didn’t come here to lose 1-0 so we were obviously trying to get the equaliser and that left us quite open at the back.
“We found it really hard today but until the 70th minute we thought we could ride it out and get a point. Their crowd started to turn on them and we felt we’d got over the worst of it but then they scored a goal out of nothing.”
Lewington and the Dons will be looking to bounce back on Saturday when they host Hull City at stadiummk in a Family Fun Day clash - tickets are priced at just £12 adults and £1 for under-18s while under-12s can go FREE with a Young Dons membership.
To purchase tickets click here, visit the Box Office at stadiummk/kiosk at thecentre:mk or call 0333 200 5343.
