Lee Nicholls picked up the Man of the Match award for his display in Saturday’s season opener but the goalkeeper would have happily traded the honour for three points.
Nicholls made a number of excellent saves against Wigan Athletic to keep the Sky Bet League One clash close but the men from MK1 weren’t able to capitalise as they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Stadium MK.
“I wanted to come in, have as little to do as possible and come away with three points,” the Liverpudlian told iFollow MK Dons.
“We were just unlucky really. Before the goal we were starting to get on top and before Scott's red card we were getting in control too.
“Their goal came from our counter and then they countered us. We were out of shape and caught off guard – we've just got to learn from our mistakes and move on.”
Nicholls added: “(Wigan) will be up there this season but I honestly think we will be too.
“I'm excited to move on to Tuesday where we need to start building a winning mentality. It's always thick and fast at the start of the season and after (Saturday) we're made up there's another game on Tuesday.”
This campaign sees Nicholls don the number one shirt for the first time in his career and while the 24-year-old made a promising start against Wigan, he knows there is still room to improve.
“I've worked hard for it over the last 12 months,” he said. “I was happy with my performance but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and there are areas I'd like to improve and tweak.
“As a professional, if you don't look at these things and don't want to improve, you'll stand still. I've set a standard now and I have to match it every week.”
