Dons manager Karl Robinson spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One game against Carlisle at stadium:mk tomorrow, Robinson first sweating over the potential participation of his top scorer in the match :
"Sam (Baldock) has a fitness test tomorrow, he's not trained today we're giving him an extra 24 hours. We've got to make sure any players coming in are equipped to take his place if needed. The players are good, they're positive and in a good frame of mind. They're looking forward and they want to win something, they want to get out of this league. We've obviously got a target, now we have to twist it around a little bit to know what we need - it's a calculated game this industry.
"Congratulations to Carlisle, obviously the year before they were beaten convincingly by Southampton at Wembley and they've put that right by getting the victory - it's a wonderful trophy for teams at this level. They are the best cup team in these two leagues and on the day, as they have proved many times this year they can beat any team convincingly as we know from there place when we got beat 4-1 so this game is important to us, we want to win.
"You have to take every game as it comes and where ever we finish in the league will reflect how we have played throughout the season and hopefully we will have to combat a mini-tournament which is what I would call it. But we're still a long way away from that and we've got to make sure we cement ourselves in the play-offs. Where we are now is a wonderful achievement, regardless of where we are from now until the end of the season that's why the pressure is not on us, we're just enjoying being in amongst it. We weren't in this position last year so we're just enjoying it, the players can't wait for the next few games."
While former Blues defender, and current Dons assistant boss John Gorman told the Milton Keynes Citizen :
“I have to admit that maybe Southampton and Hudderdfield are in the driving seat for second position now. It’s all about other results now. It could have been in our hands, but we’ve got to rely on other teams now. I’ve been in this sort of scenario before, but if we can finish the season on a high, and when Saints or Huddersfield do not make the top two, they may be flat and we could take advantage in the play-offs.
“We would have liked to move into third spot, but if we make the play-offs then we will have had a good season. To finish in the play-offs will be a good achievement. During the season we’ve had to let some outstanding players go, but we’ve brought a lot of really good young players through the side too.
“We’re happy with the run-in and we’ll be hoping that Orient and Rochdale slip up as well. They’ve got a game in hand, and Rochdale have hardly lost a game since we played them. They also picked up a draw with Brighton so we’ve got to respect them. So we want them out of the picture and want to get ourselves home and dry. But if and when we play the big fish we know we can win. But, Carlisle are very professional and we cannot underestimate them - they don’t care about us making the play-offs. They want to finish as high as possible and it’ll be a very tough game.”
In team news for the home side, as Karl Robinson has already pointed out, Dons striker Sam Baldock is a big doubt for the match after taking a heavy knock to the ankle in last Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Southampton. A player with a more serious ankle injury though, which he picked up in training this week, is Scottish centre-half Gary MacKenzie who will definitely be sidelined tomorrow afternoon.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Andy D'Urso from Billericay in Essex and he will be assisted down the lines by Mike Blackledge from Peterborough and Tim Wood from Quedgeley in Gloucestershire. Meanwhile the fourth official is Marvin Thompson from Northolt in Middlesex.