Mark Robinson believes there's much more to come from Aaron Pressley after his impressive double in the Papa John's Trophy.
The on-loan Brentford forward struck his second and third goals for the Dons, one a poacher's goal and the other with a cool finish from the penalty spot. His performance was one of several positives on a night when the Dons won 5-3 in a thrilling match at Plough Lane.
On Aaron's performance, Robbo said: “He’s just got to keep doing the right things. If you come into the squad and you are a clever number 10 there is not so much to get used to as there is for a big centre forward. There is so much adaptation for a 19-year-old centre forward. I spoke to him the other day and said, ‘just keep doing the right things because there’s a lot of adaptation to do’.
"He’s getting better all of the time: winning more headers, and his hold-up play is better. It will all come together in no time at all, he’s a great lad.”
Robbo praised the quality of his side's football at times, particularly for our second goal, and he took plenty of encouragement from the display after making so many changes.
“It was a great game of football," he added. "In the first-half I thought we were outstanding. With the second goal, if that’s a Premier League side they would be showing it over and over again. It went from our penalty area and we’ve worked the ball well to score a fantastic goal. We conceded just before half-time by getting caught, but I can’t chastise the lads too much because without having the belief to do that stuff we wouldn’t have scored the second goal. Neither would we have scored at Charlton, or on Saturday. That’s going to happen, and they have to look at their decisions and where overloads could happen. That’s all part of their learning.
“They said they were going to be really young, but our average age was 22, and I think they were closer to 25, so we had a young side out there, which is really pleasing.
“We made a lot of changes, players got game-time and some who hadn’t been starting all the time in the league did fantastically well, and that gives me another headache, which is what you want.
"For me, it’s another game of football to come and watch our players play, and it’s got Wembley at the end of it. I’m not quite sure where the negativity comes from, it felt like an FA Cup semi-final at the end. Maybe we should just embrace all these things a bit more."
You can listen to Rob Cornell's full post-match interview with Robbo by clicking on the link below. Pic: Ian Stephen, Pro Sports Images.