Lee Hughes rates tomorrow's trip to MK Dons as promotion-chasing Athletic's biggest game of the season.

The 32-year-old striker admits last week's defeat to Colchester was frustrating, but he harbours hopes that his side can replicate the performance put on in their last away game.

A trip to Millwall ended in a late 3-2 win courtesy of Chris Taylor's injury-time header, and a repeat of that would be a welcome tonic following a home defeat.

The Dons are just five points outside the top two with three games in hand - and Hughes sees this clash of two promotion challengers as similar to a Cup final.

He told Latics World: "We'll be going down there to give it our best shot and hopefully we can reproduce the performance we gave at Millwall.

"We must stick together and show that desire.  MK Dons are a strong, well-organised side, but if we perform to our best there's no reason why we can't get a result.

"This is probably our biggest game of the season so far - it's like an FA Cup final."

Hughes' 17 goals leave him just three short of the magic 20 mark, but the frontman insists all thoughts of personal targets are on hold for now.

He added: "Twenty goals for the season is definitely in sight for me now but wins for the team and getting into the play-offs is much more important."