In the tradition of football cliches, the season may be a marathon not a sprint. But winger Andy Barcham wants to see Scunthorpe United put their running shoes on.

So far in League One, the Iron have managed to go no longer than three games unbeaten.

And it is this stop-start routine which has caused so much frustration and scratching of heads in the United camp.

For as much as Scunthorpe are only one point off the drop zone, they are equally just nine away from the play-offs.

It is such narrow margins which give Barcham hope the higher reaches of the table are still within reach.

"At the moment we haven't been getting any runs going," said the 24-year-old.

"It's no good putting in a good performance and then a bad one, or a good result and then a bad one. You need to start putting them back-to-back.

"If you can do that for a few games and get a few good results, you can climb up the table quite easily. I think you've seen quite a few teams do that now.

"We've got to look to try to do that as well.

"Just when you think we are going to kick on, it hasn't quite happened.

"It's hard to say why we haven't done that as of yet, but we can look to do that from now.

"Especially at this stage of the season, the table is so tight. It's just crying out for someone to put a run together and climb up.

"It's said every season, but it's only really when you get to the back end of it that the gaps start to appear.

"At this stage of the season, if you can worry about your own games and put a run together, you'll climb up the table in no time.

"We've just got to concentrate on ourselves.

"There's no point thinking about what other people are doing or what other teams above us are doing.

"There are still so many games to be played and so many twists and turns that can happen.

"If we apply ourselves, get the performances and results that we need, then we'll move up the table."

United's next two games see them take on teams who have already managed that feat, with MK Dons and Huddersfield both making up the top six.

After a first clean-sheet of the season and a battling performance at Brentford last week, Alan Knill's side head to Milton Keynes with spirits raised.

The Leyton Orient debacle of a fortnight ago has been forgotten, with Barcham keen for the Iron to get back to the sparkling performances they showed earlier in the campaign.

"When you play teams that are up that end of the table, the big teams, they like to play football," he said.

"It's a good contest and it brings out the best in you.

"For me, it's a challenge but one I'm looking forward to.

"You can see you're going up against the best teams and the best players in the league, so it's nice to see where you're at.

"Every time you play against a team that's so-called better or a bigger team, or a team that's as good as you, it does that in your mind.

"Everyone's going to enjoy it – you have to.

"They are some great stadiums we're going to and the atmosphere's going to be great.

"Hopefully we can put in a performance to match.

"I think everyone knows what MK Dons are about. They're a very good team, we're under no illusions about that.

"We know it's going to be a very hard contest and we've got to perform right and start well if we are to have a chance in the game.

"I think if we can put the same hard work in that we did last Saturday and mix it with the performances that we showed at the start of the season, I think we're going to be in for a good game.

"I think we've shown both sides of how we can play.

"We've just got to put it all together now and get that run going.

"We need to push on, not take two steps forward and then one back.

"We need to keep going and hopefully we can do that against MK Dons."

Barcham also heads to stadium:mk looking to keep his own personal run going.

A red card against Sheffield United last month had stopped him in his tracks after a promising start to his claret and blue career.

But after serving his three-match ban, Barcham has quickly settled back into the side.

Two goals against Orient underlined what he can bring to the team, and the former Gillingham man is keen to keep improving.

"It's different in terms of getting back to where you were before because it's not one where I've been injured and need to find my fitness," said Barcham.

"Because I was out for three games it was possibly just a bit of match sharpness I was lacking. But it won't have taken me that long to get that back because I was working hard in training.

"It was only really two weeks I missed in the end because we had a midweek game.

"It was nice to get back as quickly as I did and I'm just enjoying being back in the side.

"The Orient game, no-one was happy with the performance we put in, myself included.

"Even though it was a bad performance and I didn't play very well, I added to my goal tally, which is nice.

"I'm happy to be in the team and just want to push on and keep going."