Team news from the manager ahead of Fleetwood
Neal Ardley and his side were in buoyant mood at training today as they prepared for a tough trip to Highbury Stadium this Saturday to face second place Fleetwood Town (3pm kick-off)
“A lot of the players know the history of the club and how happy they’ve made a lot of people,” said Neal in an interview to Dons Player, after Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over Milton Keynes in Sky Bet League One.
“We’ve just got to try and get their legs back and their minds back and get over the adrenaline from Tuesday night and start to focus on our next game. That’s going to be the hard task now to travel to a team in form who are fighting for automatic promotion and put in a really good performance.”
The last time the two sides met it finished 2-2 at The Cherry Red Records Stadium at the end of November last year.
The squad were also boosted by the return to the group of long-serving midfielder George Francomb with some happy news.
“George is back and trained today. He and his good lady have had a baby girl,” revealed Neal. “We’re delighted for them and it’s a big moment in anyone’s life. Hopefully he’ll get a good night’s sleep on Friday because I’m sure that won’t be happening too often in the future!”
Neal will assess January transfer-window signing Tom Soares in the build-up to the game.
“Tom is one we need to have a look at. Although he was playing well, I don’t feel he was moving as well as he would have liked. We’ve got to decide whether we put him out one more time and then rest him or whether we give him a breather this weekend. We’ll have a look and see what Stuart Douglas (physio) thinks.”
“Other than that, it’s just going to be me and my eyes in training, have a look and trying to see who is mentally and physically ready to go and put in another top performance. That will help make our minds up on where we go with selection.”
The full interview with manager Neal Ardley is now available to Dons Player subscribers. An interview with versatile defender Jon Meades will follow tomorrow, along with an in-depth preview of the match against the Cod Army.