Academy Director Mike Dove couldn't keep the smile off his face after a hugely successful week for the MK Dons Academy.

While the Under 18 side were beaten by a talented Birmingham City outfit at the weekend, that only begins to tell the story for the Dons youngsters.

Seventeen-year-old pair Liam Kelly and Laurie Walker were among five home-grown players in the first team travelling party for Saturday's trip to Crewe in the FA Cup.

Goalkeeper Laurie was named on the substitutes' bench alongside Academy graduates Kieran Murphy and Sam Baldock - the latter thrown on to find a goal in the final 10 minutes at Gresty Road.

Though Kelly was not included in the 16, the experience will have been a huge boost for him and came hot on the heels of returning from international duty with Scotland Under 18s.

Mike said: "The fact that both Liam and Laurie travelled and Sam got off the bench for the first team was the biggest result the Academy could have wanted from the weekend.

"It shows all the boys that the manager here is prepared to try out younger players if he thinks they have earned it and it shows that we are producing players of a good standard."

The involvement of Kelly, Walker and Baldock against the Railwaymen gave Mike the opportunity to test some of the club's Under 16 players against the Blues.

And while their Premier League opponents showed the experience to finish the chances they were presented with, Mike felt the players got a lot from it.

"Going into the Birmingham game without any of those three, and with Ollie Thorne and Charlie Shuter out injured, meant we could look at some of the Under 16 players.

"Adam Chicksen played the whole 90 minutes and was very bright, we had Tom Flanagan and Daniel Bailey at centre-half and, when we put Troy Farden on in the second half we had four Under 16s on the pitch.

"Staying tight early-on in games is something we have talked about at length before and we had a fantastic first 35 minutes where we kept the ball and created plenty of chances.

"We perhaps lacked that little bit of experience and Birmingham showed what needed to be done by taking their chances clinically.

"But the younger lads are progressing faster than we would have expected given the opportunities they are getting to play in Under 18 games.

"Given the development of those younger players and the step up made by the lads that travelled to Crewe, it's been a very positive week."