'40TH? I'LL PUT IT ON HOLD!'

RECORD-BREAKER Dean Lewington has admitted he is hoping his 40th birthday celebrations will be put on ice for 24 hours should MK Dons finally end their play-off hoodoo this term.

- Dave Flett

The Dons have failed to progress past the two-legged, semi-final stage during all five of their previous attempts at promotion following the end of the regular season.

Long-serving Lewington has played in all but ten minutes of those ten ties and, while he has also enjoyed a hat-trick of automatic promotions during his 20-year career with the Hertfordshire outfit, the team’s best opportunity of climbing a division this spring might be under Wembley’s world-famous arch.

Prior to this weekend, five wins from their last six games had moved Mike Williamson’s men into League Two’s final play-off place, but still eight points adrift of the top three.

Lewington was named December’s League Two Player of the Month in recognition of his contribution to the team’s fine form and for setting a new record for most league appearances made by a player at the same club in EFL history on Boxing Day when he moved clear of the 770 tally set by Swindon Town’s John Trollope – a fellow left back - in 1981.