John Bitting’s boys suffered a heavy defeat in their travel to the Southwest coast to face Exeter City in an EFL Youth Alliance Merit League Two fixture.

Two early goals from the home side set the precedent for what was inevitably a tough result to take for the young Dons. Although down, the Under-18s didn’t accept defeat within the opening stages.
 
A sluggish start then flipped as the young Dons found a foothold within the fixture, which allowed Jediah Bombo to halve the deficit with an outstanding long-range strike.
 
Although, the spark lighted by Bombo was quickly dismissed by the Grecians as they restored their two-goal lead within the early stages of the second half.
 
Following the restoration of their advantage, City ensured to wipe out any hope that the Dons had with two late goals to make up the 5-1 score-line.
 
When asked about this defeat Lead Development Phase Head Coach John Bitting had this to say “There’s a lot of honest reflection we can take from this.
 
“The score-line is very frustrating, and I believe the way we played could’ve been improved collectively, even with our basics throughout the match. We have a very competitive group here, and they know that they can be better and as a collective, so do we.
 
“In terms of the positives we can take, we’ve included both Under-16s and Under-18s players throughout our recent fixtures, which is a great opportunity for our young players to prepare against older opposition for their near future.”
 
John Bitting, as well as MK Dons Under-18s will look to bounce back in their next Merit League Two clash as they host Brentford on Wednesday 5 April at Woughton on the Green Playing Fields, Newport Road, MK6 3EA. Kick-off 11:00am.

MK Dons: Stacey (Bedford 61), Clark-Anderson, Boyce (Scholtz 61), Tripp, Sinclair-Linton, Wood, Bombo (Lewis-Burgess 70), Troso, Adepoju, Daffern, Guzynski

Goals: Bombo 24