Midfielder back in contention
Neal Ardley has confirmed that midfielder Jake Reeves returned to full training today and he is likely to be in the reckoning for Saturday’s trip to Notts County.
Reeves (pictured) has shrugged off the hamstring injury that caused him to miss the win against Mansfield, but George Francomb is a doubt for the match at Meadow Lane.
Speaking during an interview with Rob Cornell for Dons Player, Neal Ardley said: “Everybody is good, apart from George Francomb. I think it is quite a bad dead leg that he has received and he will probably struggle. Jake has trained today so hopefully there will be no reaction from that and he comes into the reckoning as well.”
Neal added that it’s tough to know what to expect from Saturday’s opponents with Notts County having recently changed manager, but he was impressed by their victory at Crawley in Jamie Fullarton’s first match in charge.
“I have watched a lot of teams a lot of the time and if you had asked me prior to the appointment I would have said that when they are good, they can be sensational,” said Neal. “I had seen them tear other teams apart in 20-30 minute spells, but when they have been bad they have been all over the shop. The new manager has probably spotted that as well and they have gone away from home in his first game (win at Crawley) and put in a really solid team performance. It’s hard to know what to expect, but I am sure he will do a great job.
“It is an away game at a nice ground, a proper league ground, and we are going to have to be at our best. They have come down from the league above and have good players, but all I can focus on is us and how we play on Saturday.
“The training pitch was frozen this morning so we put training back an hour so it would thaw out a bit. We got as much 11 versus 11 and shape work done as we possibly could. It’s meant to be teeming with rain tomorrow so we have to make sure we get the work done.”
The full video interview with Neal Ardley is now on Dons Player, along with interviews with Jake Reeves and Jon Meades.