David Martin believes MK Dons’ defence are in for the toughest test of the season as they look to keep quite a Peterborough United side firing on all cylinders.
Second-placed Peterborough have already scored an impressive 17 goals in their opening seven Sky Bet League 1 matches but the Dons will be aiming to notch up their fifth clean sheet of the campaign when they travel to London Road this afternoon.
Only Crawley have managed to prevent Posh from finding the back of the net this season, but it happened on Peterborough’s own turf which will fill the Dons with plenty of confidence.
Speaking to MK Dons Player, Martin said: “Under Darren Ferguson they are a free-flowing football side and arguably the biggest test we’ll have this season as a back four.
“The way we keep the ball is almost our way of defending because we tire teams out and they don’t have the ball to cause any damage against us. It’ll be an interesting game because they are very attacking; obviously Britt Assombalonga up front is going to be a handful. We’ll see what happens on Saturday.
“Their front four is very attacking and they’ve got free-kick options as well with Grant McCann. It’ll be a tough game all-round. Especially going to Peterborough, it’s quite an intimidating place to go but those games are great games to play in, ones you want to play in.”
The Dons’ last trip to London Road ended in a heartbreaking play-off defeat in 2010/11. It was just one of a number of nail-biting encounters over the years and as a result the Dons have established a tasty rivalry with Posh.
Martin added: “Obviously with the fans it’s one of the closest rivalries we have apart from maybe Luton and Northampton. Over the years they’ve always been tight games and even when I wasn’t here they looked like good games to play in. We obviously won the home leg here in the play offs but losing there was heartbreaking which makes this game, now, a little more special.
“Two years in football is a long time and we’re a different team now, we’ve evolved and they’ve probably evolved as a team as well. You don’t tend to hang on to many things because it becomes unprofessional and you probably won’t play how you should on the day so you do notice after the game how much it means to the fans and you do want to win for the fans, like any game. This one’s probably a bit more special though.
“We’re not even ten League games into the season yet so it’s still early days in the League but we’ll go there and give ourselves a good benchmark if we get three points.”
