Development Coach Alan Reeves revealed that a few stern words at half-time went a long way to maintaining his side's unbeaten form in the Central League Cup.
Our under-23s fought back with a much-improved second-half display, as forward Tommy Wood (pictured right above) netted twice in the 2-2 draw away to Southend. The result also kept up the young Dons record of only one competitive defeat all season.
"I told them at half-time that the performance was unacceptable," said Alan. "It wasn't the kind of performance that I'm used to for a team that I put out on the pitch. I wasn't going to stand for it and they were warned at half-time that unless they picked it up that I had four under-18s players sat with me and I'd put them on. To be fair, they dug in and had a proper go in the second-half and got themselves back into the game."
The full interview with Alan Reeves is available below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.
Tommy Wood kept up his strike rate for the campaign with two further goals, including a glancing header deep into time added on to level the scores. Alan has been encouraged by the young forward's displays since he arrived from Burnley earlier this year.
"He's just keep doing what he's doing," said Alan. "He's still got things he needs to work on, little, fine details in his game. He's only been with us for a few months so he's learning constantly, but he seems to have a knack of finding space in the box and when he gets a chance he puts it away. He missed an even easier chance in the first-half, when we were one-nil down, so he could have been sat here talking about a hat-trick. I'm sure he'll settle for the two."
Alan is also adapting to life under our new management duo of Wally Downes and Glyn Hodges, but he's fully aware of the important role everyone must play at this stage in the season.
"Everyone is still finding their feet at the minute," said Alan. "I'd known of Wally, but I hadn't met him before. We don't know what he likes and he won't know what we like, so it'll take a week or two or maybe even three to find out what we all want. Ultimately, whatever the gaffer needs we've got to do our best to give him it, because we need results for the first-team."