Milton Keynes Dons captain Dean Lewington is intent on getting back to the Coca-Cola Championship, the division in which he started his career, but en route with the League 1 Dons the 25-year-old left back would be happy to make a detour via Wembley to play in March's Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final.

When Lewington leads his team out to face Southampton in Wednesday evening's first leg of the Southern Area Final at the Stadiummk, he will cast aside promotion aspirations for 90 minutes to concentrate on helping the Dons put themselves into a good position to reach the Final for what would be the second time in three seasons.

In 2007-08 Lewington was part of the Milton Keynes team that beat Grimsby Town 2-0 at Wembley to lift the Trophy - and that was an experience he would love to repeat. "It was a great journey to get to the Final," he recalled, "and the day itself was a fantastic occasion for everybody involved with the club.

"Players at our level don't get many chances to play at Wembley, so it's a precious experience. We've tasted it once and of course we'd like to do it again, but we've got a tough semi-final coming up against a team with some big players and with the capability of being right at the top level of League 1."

Southampton are in fact 13th in the table, though they started the season with a 10-point penalty and without that they would be level on points with the seventh-placed Dons. When the teams met at St Mary's Stadium in October the Saints were 3-1 winners, so Lewington knows exactly how tough the Trophy semi-final will be.

But he is determined to reach Wembley again and perhaps go on to repeat the Dons' feat of 2008, when they followed up their Trophy triumph by winning promotion. On that occasion it was as League 2 champions; this time round it seems that the Play-Offs are their most realistic route, as Lewington admits.

He said: "It will be difficult to catch the top two (Leeds United and Norwich City) and Charlton are also quite a way clear in third place. While there's a chance we'll keep going, but we're doing okay in a transitional season for us - there have been lots of changes and if we reach the Play-Offs again it will be a fair achievement."

One of the key changes at the club has been the return of Manager Paul Ince, who led the Dons to their 2007-08 successes and - after a stint in charge of Premier League outfit Blackburn Rovers - took charge for a second time at Stadiummk following last summer's departure of Roberto di Matteo to West Bromwich Albion.

The Dons missed out in last season's Play-Offs, losing in the semi-finals to Scunthorpe United, but Ince will be as keen as is Lewington to get the club back into the Championship. "It would be great to get back up there," said Lewington, "but just like in the Trophy there's a lot of hard work ahead of us."

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