Wigan Athletic 'came to stop us playing' - MK Dons chief

And despite forcing an 88th-minute equaliser through Harry Darling, which cancelled out Tom Naylor's opener just before the hour mark, Manning wasn't overly satisfied.

"It's frustrating, in numerous aspects," he said.

"Firstly, the referee's performance made it difficult for us, it was very stop-start.

"The inconsistency from the first to the second half and it made it harder to build any momentum from that sense.

"Wigan also had a clear game plan to come here and stop us playing.

"When it's a team that's so physical and so experienced and so well set up as they were, that makes it difficult.

"They came here well structured, well drilled and difficult to break down.

"Overall a point was probably a fair result based on the chances in the game."

Latics had looked as though they were going to hang on for a precious three points after Naylor took advantage of a deflection off Tom Pearce's shot to open the scoring.

"I thought if they were going to score, it would probably be from a set-piece," mused Manning.

"You talk about it being slightly lucky, it takes a deflection on its way through.

"But these things happen in a game, and we've probably had moments like that go for us this year.

“We have eight games to go, we have to go into next Saturday’s game with the same intensity and discipline to win it.”