With the league leaders on the horizon this weekend, we've grabbed a word with MK Dons website editor Franco to discuss stuff.

1) Who are you, and how long you been supporting MK Dons?
My name is Franco and I publish the MK Dons fanzine The Bucks Fizz. I’ve been supporting MK Dons (Wimbledon) since September 2003.

2) How you finding life in the basement division?
Its been fun, we’ve had some good times and some dreadful times, but on the whole we’ve been treated very well. I’d rather not have had a second season here but that’s history. Personally I’ve enjoyed myself I’ve made some new friends and in the two seasons ive only got Accrington and B**y to visit to cross off the list. (Including the promoted and relegated sides) The reality is the club has now established itself, steadied the ship after the slide and were building a good foundation. We must say goodbye to League Two this season though.

3) You've got an eight point lead from the side in fourth place. Is promotion in the bag already?
Absolutely not. Last seasons failure to be promoted still causes a fair bit of anger to surface every now and again, I’m not taking anything for granted. Any one of almost a dozen sides are still in the chase for promotion. Admittedly there’s realistically only four who are in the hunt for automatic promotion, but that’s just like last season and we lost out.

4) Paul Ince is continually linked with every other job going. Does that make things uncomfortable for you lot?
I think you’ve got to accept it in the basement if you’ve got a manager, player, physio or tea lady whose the best in their job its more than likely a bigger club is going to come sniffing and try and lure them away. Its more annoying than anything else but the Paint Pot Cup and League Two title will only increase his worth and the clubs sniffing round him.

5) Is Ince proving to be a decent manager, or is he just being made to look good by having a budget far in excess of everyone else (except Peterboro)?
Its not just Ince that’s turned this club around, he’s backed up by one of the best brains in football, Ray Mathias. Paul and Ray have tweaked things from last year and are getting it right. Martin Who? had more to spend and Paul has had to be clever with his spending. I don’t think we have had as much to spend as some may think .

6) It's back to back defeats for your lot. You having a wobble or has it just been one of those things?
I’m surprised its taken 27 games before we suffered back to back defeats. We’ve not looked particularly clever going forward for a few weeks now. At the back we have looked solid, but if you’re trying to win games with Jude Stirling as your main striker and you have three out of sorts strikers on the bench things cant be going to plan A. Our style has been sussed and without a striker we are going to limp through the last 19 games and scrape a play off place if were lucky.

7) What you expecting from Dale this weekend?
With our two defeats you are now one of the best teams on current form and your away record is decent with only one defeat all season. I’m expecting you to line up 4-5-1 and be very well organised. We need to bounce back and show that we still believe we can win this league.

8) Has the old Wimbledon v MK Dons thing died down now? Are you still getting plenty of stick or are you beginning to be accepted?
You get the odd poster bringing up the debate but it’s getting rare that the subject sees the light of day. Face to face at away games I can’t remember the conversation arising and I’ve only missed our game at yours this season.

9) What's the best and worst things you've seen in League Two this season?
Off the field best; Morecambe fans the whole weekend were fantastic, even celebrated with us as we went top after beating them.
Off the field worst; Hereford fans spitting at women and children after we beat them away.
On the field best; our 5-0 demolition of Accrington it was just like watching Madrid.
On the field worst; some of the refereeing has been abysmal both for and against us

10) So if you're winning 2-1 on Saturday as the fourth official puts the board up, would you take a draw?
No…even if its 2-0 I’ll be praying we could hold on for a point. To be honest we’re a far better team now especially at the back. I just can’t see us scoring two goals at the moment unless we get someone in by Friday lunchtime.
 

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