Academy Director Mike Dove explained how tightening up early on in games has helped his Under 18 team turn their fortunes around.

The young Dons followed up a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa last week with a 2-0 win at Tottenham on Saturday, now collecting the results Mike feels their performances have merited.

Sam Collins' tremendous free-kick on 16 minutes and Sam Baldock's excellent finish on 78 gave the Under 18s their second win in a row at Spurs having thumped their Premiership opponents 6-2 away last season.

But Dove says that had to be wiped from the players' minds before they stepped foot on the pitch.

He said: "The win there last season was playing on the minds of both sets of players before the game and we knew Tottenham would be up for the game off the back of it.

"I spoke to the players before the game and told them to forget about last season and instead use the win over Villa as their incentive to do well again.

"Again, we worked very hard in the first 20 minutes against a very talented Tottenham side. They were finding pockets of space at times that we worked hard to counteract.

"It was probably the most pleasing factor of the day - that we have managed to overcome this hurdle of conceding an early goal.

"The fact that we got one ourselves was a complete reversal of what we've had recently and it sets you up for the rest of the game.

"We kept the work rate up in the second half and to get the second goal was a fair reflection of how the game went."

The late postponement of Monday's reserve game against Grays Athletic denied many of the club's apprentices the chance to play a second game in three days.

But it did give the scholars the chance to train with the first team ahead of their trip to Watford on Saturday.

Mike added: "It was disappointing not to have the reserve game yesterday as the younger players would have gone into it with a bit of confidence.

"But the manager has allowed them to train with the first team today and it's very good for them to train in that environment.

"On Wednesday we'll start looking ahead to Watford, get refocused and work on the areas that we still need to improve on."