Tom Flanagan will wear the captain’s armband tomorrow night as he leads an MK Dons XI out against Tottenham Hotspur XI.
pitch in almost a year and is keen to impress the manager and fans alike, especially as the season is just days away.mkstadiumThe 21-year-old defender has spent just 29 minutes on the
Flanagan spent last year on loan with Gillingham and Barnet, in between he was called up to a friendly for Northern Ireland Under-21s and had surgery on a broken metatarsal, but is desperate to stake his claim for a place in the starting XI for the forthcoming Sky Bet League 1 campaign.
Speaking to mkdons.com he said: “I think that there are boys in the team, including myself, who feel they have done enough in pre-season to be playing and now we just need to do that last little bit which should equate to a good performance and hopefully a win tomorrow.
“If they are going to play a young team they will be eager to impress as well, the thing with Tottenham is they don’t always keep the ball that well but they are very direct, not long-ball direct, but they get the ball out wide, they run at you. It will be hard but it will also be good fun and a game for us all to enjoy.
“A team like Tottenham will play with an attractive style, regardless of who plays, so hopefully that will attract a good crowd. I didn’t play much against Rayo Vallecano last week so it would give me the chance to play in front of the fans because I haven’t played in front of them for a long time. I’m looking forward to it.”
One player who many fans may have been hoping to see is Adam Smith but the right-back, who spent time on loan with the Dons in 2011, will not be returning with Spurs XI having joined Derby County on loan.
Flanagan admits he is disappointed not to be coming up against his former team-mate, however, he is equally pleased at the opportunity Smith has been given to impress elsewhere.
He added:“It’s a shame Adam Smith won’t be here, I played against him last year and he is a very good footballer. He deserves his move, I think he has been underused at Tottenham but they have such a big squad and in the Premier League they limit their squads so he hasn’t really been given a chance yet.
“It will be good for him to go and get games at Derby but it’s a shame he won’t be here tomorrow because it would have been nice to play against him.
“I’ve played against a lot of the young players at Tottenham through various youth games in the past but I don’t know any of them personally. It’s difficult to know who will play because the first team and development squad have been abroad but their manager seems to quite like introducing young players into the first team so I would have thought the Spurs players who do play will be keen to impress.”
