Mark Robinson said he faces a difficult decision to select his starting 11 on Sunday as the Dons seek to end the season on a high.
Despite our League One status having been secured, our Head Coach is likely to resist the option to make changes for the match against a Lincoln side already certain of taking part in the play-offs. However, centre-back Ben Heneghan is ruled out with the hamstring injury that he suffered in the match against Portsmouth.
Robbo said: “It’s a difficult one, and it’s something I have to think about. If I bring players into the side I will feel I’m not rewarding the lads who have done really well to get us out of the situation we were in. By the same token I realise that fans might want to see players who haven’t had opportunities. It’s something for me to think about, but it has been a squad game anyway. We will probably be looking just to continue our form with the players who have mainly been involved.
“No one can say that we got out of the situation we were in with our backs to the wall. We got out of the situation through playing with freedom. That’s why the fans feel so engaged and excited. I would love to see even more freedom on Sunday, but we’ve also got to have that defensive base that we didn’t have in our last game against Portsmouth. We conceded three goals and we also conceded three goals against Rochdale. We don’t want to be conceding that amount of goals because you can’t rely on winning games 4-3. We want to see the freedom, but we want to see the solid base as well.”
On the injury to Heneghan, Robbo added: “Ben’s injury isn’t too bad, but he won’t be available for Sunday unfortunately. I think it’s only a matter of weeks rather than anything longer than that.”
Though Sunday is our final League One match of the season, it’s a particularly busy time for Robbo. Decisions need to be made about next season’s squad, plus there’s a match in the London Senior Cup on Tuesday (Cockfosters away) and the test event at Plough Lane.
“Training will still go on for the younger players and other members of staff will still be in for the next couple of weeks because we have those games to fulfill. I’ve still got meetings to have in terms of recruitment, so it’s going to be a really busy couple of weeks, but it’s part of what we need to do.
“Any decisions are difficult, but we have a committee now and there are various things we have to look at in terms of recruitment. Any decision is going to be difficult because the lads have been absolutely fantastic. It (letting players go) is never going to be a part of the job that you enjoy.”