Hasselbaink warns confident Cobblers against complacency as MK Dons come to town

The Dons arrive at Sixfields on a terrible run, having won just once in Sky Bet League One since November 11 last year, and without an away win since beating Bury at Gigg Lane way back in September.

Robbie Neilson’s men have won once in their past 16 league games, claiming just 13 points out of 48, a run that has seen them drop right into the relegation battle.

A win for the Cobblers at Sixfields on Saturday will see them leapfrog their near neighbours from across the Buckinghamshire border, who will drop into the bottom four.

It looks like being a good time to play MK, but Hasselbaink says his Town team can take nothing for granted.

“In this league, you shouldn’t be looking at that as you can’t underestimate anybody,” said the Cobblers boss, referring to MK’s form. “We want to go into the game knowing it is going to be hard.

“Confidence is a big thing, but you can’t be thinking ‘they aren’t playing well or winning, so we are going to turn them over easy’. You can’t think that and I don’t want to go into the match like that.

“We are going to respect them, we are going to make sure we prepare really, really well, and try to give us the best chance possible to get the three points.”

Hasselbaink admits his team is ‘in a good moment’, but he added: “We prepare for this game as normal, the same as we always do.

“We are not jumping up and down, we haven’t suddenly got our hands in the air and all that kind of stuff.

“We are training as usual, we have debriefed about Bradford and now we are looking at MK Dons and looking at how we need to go into the match.

“We need to look where their danger points are, and see how we can prepare ourselves for that.”

Cobblers go into this weekend’s game boosted by their impressive 2-1 win at high-flying Bradford City last Saturday, and Hasselbaink is keen to build on that victory.

“We are in a good moment, and we played ever so well against Bradford for 75 minutes,” said the Town manager.

“We want to work to be able to do that for 96 minutes, 98, 100, whatever it is.

“That is what we are trying to accomplish, but we have to try to keep on going.

“Bradford was good, we got the three points, but it has gone now and we have to prepare for the next one, and try to eliminate the opposition, and try to make sure we are right again.

“These are all important matches, and we are in a good moment, but it is up to us, we need to try and prolong that for as long as possible.”