A summary of Dons Player interview
AFC Wimbledon Under-18s manager Mark Robinson said he had “mixed feelings” after watching his side march into the second round of the FA Youth Cup at Fakenham Town last night.
Despite the 7-0 victory, Mark Robinson said there was plenty of room for improvement and lessons need to be learned with the rest of Wimbledon’s Football League Youth Alliance campaign in mind.
Speaking during an interview with Rob Cornell for Dons Player, Mark said: “We cannot afford to get off to a start like we did tonight again and we need to improve our finishing. I have mixed feelings because we were poor for the first 15 minutes. You try to get the boys up for this kind of game by telling them what they should expect, but at the start we did not win our physical battles and we were not brave enough on the ball. Until Billy Frost scored they caused us problems, but the second-half was a different story as we played some really good stuff.
“No disrespect to Fakenham, but we did not take our chances. That will cause us trouble this season when we are playing other sides in our league. Missed chances have already cost us during this campaign and we had five or six clear chances that we did not take. Fakenham were full of energy and endeavour early on, but they also played some good football. Their winger caused us problems, but we should have known what type of game we were going to face. Our players have to learn that they must match teams for endeavour and work-rate.”
It was a big night for Fakenham Town to host a team from a Football League club and Mark Robinson was full of praise for the welcome that his squad received.
“The club were absolutely fantastic from the moment that we arrived,” added Mark. “They gave us a really warm welcome and they were nice to us after the game. They were certainly more impressed with our play than I was! I wish Fakenham well for the rest of this season.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch the full video interview with Mark Robinson on our premium channel.