Fine start is a nice surprise to Ardley, but there's no getting carried away

Saturday’s 3-1 win over 10-man Burton Albion maintained the Dons 100 per cent home record, as well as lifting them to third in the table.

Goals from Michael Smith, Jack Midson and Andy Frampton over-turned a 1-0 half-time deficit to make it four wins out of four at the Cherry Red Records stadium.

The Dons have 16 points after eight games, a nine-point improvement on the same stage last year, and a four-point improvement on the Dons first season in the Football League the year before.

Ardley said: “I cannot deny it has gone better than I imagined, I did not think we would hit the ground running as a team so quickly.

“We are still a work in progress on the pitch in terms of our style and what we are trying to achieve, so it is pleasing.”

He added: “I expected us to be solid, to win some and lose some, but I did not expect us to be third after this amount of games.”

Despite their lofty position and impeccable home record, and while Ardley will not be seen to dampen the good vibes, the Dons camp have survival targets to reach before any possible talk of a promotion challenge.

He said: “I am not dampening it down but we can’t get carried away. We still have 34 points to go to our target of 50.

“If we get there quickly, excellent, and then we’ll start talking about where we go from there.”

Ardley expects Will Antwi and Kevin Sainte-Luce to return to first team training this week, with a few to them taking part in next week’s U21 cup match against Gillingham.

Meanwhile, Charlie Sheringham continues to struggle with his ankle injury and is likely to remain on the treatment table for anywhere up to two weeks.

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