Karl Robinson was pleased with his side’s ‘professional’ showing at non-League Brackley Town yesterday evening.
The Dons kept their unbeaten pre-season intact with a 2-1 victory over the Blue Square North outfit, a win which came courtesy of the side’s sixth and seventh penalties of the summer. Izale McLeod’s spot-kick on the brink of half-time had cancelled out the Saints’ opener before 16-year-old Giorgio Rasulo won the game from 12-yards 10 minutes before the end.
Robinson, whose side travel to Plymouth Argyle on Sunday for their seventh friendly of pre-season, was satisfied with his team’s performance and he caught up with mkdons.com after the game to give his verdict on a testing run-out in Oxfordshire.
The 32-year-old manager said: “I thought yesterday was quite comfortable. Maybe we weren’t at our best but we’re playing very fatigued at the moment and, in that aspect, I thought the players were brilliant.
“They understood where we were at after they scored their goal, against the run of play, and we were very professional in the way we moved the ball around.
“There are only 16 days to go until the season starts and arguably now we are probably a third away from where we want to be. We’ve got an awful lot of work to do in the next two and a half weeks to get ourselves fully fit.
“But, looking over the next seven days, we have the Plymouth game, the Rayo game and the Barnet game and they will be the last true assessments of where we’re at going into the season.”
Two players of particular note in last night’s match were newly-signed midfielder Ben Reeves, who almost put the Dons ahead with a fierce shot from the edge of the box midway through the second half and Rasulo who confidently stepped up to taking the winning penalty.
And Robinson reserved a special mention for his two young players. He added: “You can see how talented he (Ben Reeves) is. He’s certainly someone who I think will be good for the future of the Football Club because I think we forget how young he is.
“He is definitely our type of player and the fact that he shoots a lot will only impress the fans. Some of the fans last year said we don’t shoot enough, which I have to agree with to a certain extent, and so it’s a key focus of what we want to do this - shoot more and be more aggressive in our finishing.
“Giorgio, as well, what a talent he is, but they all are, all the young lads. I watched the youngsters play Winslow United the other day and there’s a tremendous integration of youth throughout the whole Football Club and I’m really happy. We’re all in a good place at the moment and I’m feeling very comfortable.”
