Defender on facing his hometown club
Paul Robinson has a special affection for tomorrow’s opponents as he grew up supporting Barnet, but that won’t stop him doing everything possible to extend Wimbledon’s impressive run.
The 34-year-old has featured in every League 2 match this season for Wimbledon and he's shown all of his experience in abundance during a sequence of five wins out of six for the Dons.
It’s been a fine career so far for Robinson, including a promotion with Millwall, but he came so close to taking a different path with his hometown club Barnet trying to sign him as a teenager.
to watch a clip of a video interview with Paul on our official You Tube channel.Barnet LinkClick on
During a five-minute interview for Dons Player, Paul said: “I was born and bred in Barnet and spent some of my formative years going to matches at Underhill. I was quite fortunate growing up in North London as I would go with my family one weekend to watch Barnet and the other week we would go to Arsenal. It was back in the day when you could do that really, it was a lot more affordable.
“A lot of my football experiences growing up were on the terraces at Underhill. They were a really good non league club and there was a massive local rivalry between Barnet and Enfield. Then Barnet managed to get into the league and establish themselves. They were always teetering on the brink and had some near misses, but then they went down. You look at them now though and they seem to be a club going from strength to strength. It’s looking good off the pitch with a new stadium and on the pitch they have consolidated in League 2 this season.
“When I was 16 I nearly joined Barnet’s youth programme. They approached me, but I ended up signing for Millwall. I’ve not played against them loads in my career. I played against Barnet in the JPT for Millwall and obviously earlier this season for Wimbledon.”
That match ended 2-0 to the Dons in October, but Robinson expects Barnet to provide tougher opposition tomorrow.
“Martin Allen is a good manager, who gets his players up for it,” he added. “Barnet will fight for every ball and they have good players. I think they assessed their first half to the season and did some work in January. After bringing players in, they will be a much tougher proposition than earlier in the season. Their home form is very good so it will be a tough afternoon on Saturday.
“Our manager has emphasised that there are just 10 weeks to go until the end of the season. We have a lot of games coming up and we’re looking forward to it. We have put ourselves into a good position. We are looking to try and turn it into a special season by pushing towards that top-seven and seeing where that takes us.”
The full interview with Paul and Neal Ardley’s update ahead of Barnet are on Dons Player.