The visit of high-flying Brentford will provide MK Dons with one of their toughest challenges of the season, according to manager Karl Robinson.
on Monday sitting in third place in the table, with games in hand and on the back of three successive victories at Griffin Park.mkstadiumUwe Rosler’s promotion-chasing Bees arrive at
Earlier in the season Brentford twice came from behind to beat the Dons 3-2 in London, in fact, the Bees have not been defeated by the men from MK1 since November 2010.
The Dons though will seek solitude in Brentford’s away record in the League this season – having lost their last two games on the road at Carlisle and Stevenage – as they have only picked up maximum points on six occasions.
Speaking ahead of the game, Robinson said: “We’re looking forward to the challenge, it’s arguably one of our toughest tests of the season tomorrow but we’re going into the game full of confidence.
“We said we wanted four points out of these two games over Easter, six is obviously a bonus but this Brentford team is probably one of the best Brentford teams this League has seen. Where do you want me to start?
“Uwe Rosler has brought in some good loan players and you have to take your hat off to him, I think he’s done a wonderful job. We know the enormity of the challenge, we know how hard it is going to be tomorrow and we’re not shirking any responsibility.
“I think Bradley Wright-Phillips is exceptional, (Marcello) Trotta and (Harry) Forrester are both talents, and I think Adam Forshaw is only going to get better, and better and better. They’ve also got (Jonathan) Douglas, (Tom) Adeyemi, (Toumani) Diagouraga who are all good players and their back four have been solid for large parts of the season. Not to mention Clayton Donaldson, who is one of the leading goal scorers in the League.”
Robinson has no illusions about the type of battle to expect from Brentford and although results against the Bees have made tough reading over the years he believes his side is fully prepared for the encounter and hopes to make the most of home comforts at stadiummk.
“They’ve had the better of us over recent seasons and the games between the two sides have always been very tight games. I think Jonathan Douglas is pitvital to them, he’s a very good player and he’s almost the main cog which allows them to play around them. Every single player knows how hard it is going to be, we’ve trained and had meetings to prepare for the game and we believe we can beat them but we know they will also believe that they can beat us.
“It’s nice to be back home, we’re sick of the sight of the inside of that coach and we’ve broken the back of our away journeys now. The fans are going to play a big part in the next few weeks; we’re going to need then. At Griffin Park their fans are very hostile and bordering on intimidating, and our fans will need to be very hostile and loud and supportive of us as well because we still have a job on our hands. We’ve not won back-to-back games for a long time and that is probably the main source of where we are right now. “