DONS WON’T BOW DOWN TO PRESSURE
MK DONS striker Dean Bowditch believes playing attractive, free-flowing football is in their DNA – and the results will follow as they bid to bury fears over relegation from the Championship.
After their eye-catching style saw them promoted from League One last season, Karl Robinson’s men have struggled to adapt to the rigours of second-tier football with the added pressure of battling against the spending power of some of the league’s big boys.
Philosophy
“It’s been tougher than we expected,” Bowditch told The FLP. “We knew it was going to be hard – the amount of money being spent in the Championship is phenomenal so for us to make that step up has been difficult.
“We seem to keep in games quite well and are only losing by the odd goal here and there; we never really lose by three or four and get run off the park.
“Against Nottingham Forest we went 2-0 down early on and sometimes you see teams crumble but we didn’t.
“We went the other way and played better (they eventually lost 2-1).
“Some of our performances have shown that we deserve to be in this league and hopefully we get enough points to remain in it.”
Despite sitting just above the drop zone, MK Dons haven’t opted for a change in tactics and Bowditch insists it’s unlikely the team will alter the way they play any time soon.
“We have a philosophy at the club we like to stick to and the manager has sustained that through the leagues.
“He’s always said that he wants to win or lose the right way; I think teams in this league have punished us when we’ve made mistakes but our play is very open with attractive, passing football.
“He wants to keep playing this way and I don’t think we’ll ever change, but if we keep putting in those performances the tide will turn.”
Happy
On a personal note, the 29year-old striker is entering a fifth season at stadiumMK, and after a difficult first few years believes the team have finally started to find some rhythm.
He said: “I came to the club when we were in the play-off area and in my first season we missed out narrowly.
“Last year we just seemed to click, we had some outstanding players at the club.
“I have set myself a goals target that I’d like to reach which I never tell anyone so I’ll try and hit that, but I just want to remain fit and be happy; life’s too short not to enjoy yourself and play the beautiful game.”