AFC Wimbledon will need rub of the green and ruthlessness in front of goal to beat Blackpool, says assistant

The Dons travel to Bloomfield Road in 20th place in League One having won just three of their opening 16 games.

Daws knows his side will be up against it when they take on the in-form Seasiders, who are aiming to secure their fourth straight win.

"They have an experienced team with experienced players," he said.

"They have an experienced manager who knows the level very well. He’s had multiple promotions with his teams and we know that going away to Blackpool is never easy, so we will need to be at our best.

"The boys will be prepared so that they know what’s expected from them when they cross that white line. If the evidence of the past two weeks is the same then we will be ready.

"Hopefully, we take our chances and we defend our goal well and get a little bit of the rub of the green and we come away from Blackpool with three points and with a nice journey back.”

While Wimbledon are currently languishing at the wrong end of the table, Daws - who was appointed as Glyn Hodges' assistant at the end of October, is happy with the progress his side are making.

He added: “The big thing is that you come in and you don’t know what to expect from the players, but they’ve been outstanding.

"As a group, their attitude and willingness to work, learn, and get better, is really refreshing. As a coach and a manager, that’s all you can ask for.

"I can only talk for the last couple of weeks, but I think the progress we’ve made in terms of what we want the team to look like, both in and out of possession, has been really positive. If we can achieve that in two weeks, you have to think about what we can achieve in four, six, eight, or 10 weeks.

“The objective is to be in a good position at the end of the season, but taking small steps to get that. Each day we are getting that opportunity to take that small step and improve the team.

"We’ve had some good performances, but what we have to do is start getting three points to make it easier for us. I think when we do that we will fly.

“Irrespective of where we are, we want to be in the highest league possible. I’m here at this football club because I want to be challenging in positions that I’ve been used to in this league.

"If we can climb the league and get in touch with the next pack and maybe push up the league, then that’s great.

"We know it’s not going to be easy, we know where we sit in the food chain in this division. We accept and understand that, but there’s no reason why we can’t buck the odds and be challenging.

"Our objective is to be challenging at the other end of the league, not the bottom places.”