Captain Will Nightingale could make just his second start of the season on Saturday and our manager is pleased to welcome him back into the squad.
The Dons host an in-form Wycombe Wanderers side without the injured Rod McDonald, but Will played for half an hour at Sunderland last Saturday and Wally expects him to be a real asset to the squad in the coming weeks.
“Will is an inspirational player,” said Wally. “He is whole-hearted, as everyone knows. Will is not the most vocal around the place, but he is one of those players who leads by example, so it’s great to have him back in the squad.”
Wally added that Joe Pigott, who scored a vital double to defeat Wycombe at the end of last season, is pushing for a recall after being on the substitutes’ bench in recent weeks.
“It has (been difficult to leave him out) because he’s a match-winner,” said Wally. “He’s a goalscorer and we need goals, but Kwesi has weighed in with a couple. He will certainly be back in the frame for Saturday.”
Wally is expecting a very difficult match on Saturday with Wycombe currently occupying third place in League One after coming from 3-1 down to edge out Southend 4-3 last Saturday.
“Any side that Gareth Ainsworth puts out will work for the full 90 minutes. You can see that from the result last week. He gets players playing for him and they have a great atmosphere and a great team presence when they play against you. You know that one goal is never enough. If you manage to come off with a clean sheet against them, you’ve done really well. To come back from 3-1 down against Southend last week shows great resilience.
“It’s close enough to be called a derby I think and we’ve got to give the fans something to get excited about, but it’s a two-way thing,” said Wally. “Anything we achieve, we achieve with them, so let’s get them off their seats on Saturday.
“We’ve tried to keep the training sessions short and sharp this week. You don’t want to wear them out. We’ve played game after game so our fitness levels are there, but at the same time you don’t want to drain them. Training and playing in heat like this is debilitating, so we try to get as much information into them as we can in as short a space of time as we can and get the work into them. We’ve been doing a bit of classroom work with them this afternoon as well.”
Take a look at the full interview with Wally below.