Aspiring sports journalist Anthony Wordsworth has been back on familiar territory. He's visited our training ground for a catch-up with a couple of former team-mates about our start to the campaign.
Anthony is coming towards the end of his degree in sports writing and broadcasting at Staffordshire University, but he had time to drop in on our New Malden training base for a chat with the last line – goalkeeper Nik Tzanev and defender Will Nightingale.
“It’s been really good,” Will said to Anthony (pictured with our Sports Scientist Chris McConnell). “A little bit mixed, but we’ve had three clean sheets so from our perspective we want to keep as many of them for the season as possible. We have our little defenders meetings and it’s something to build on, because there’s still things to work on, but all-in-all, it’s been a steady start."
Anthony watched our first game of the season – the 2-0 victory at home to Gillingham – and he asked our long-serving duo about the style of play Johnnie Jackson wants to implement of playing out from the back.
“During pre-season, that’s the way the gaffer wanted us to play,” said Nik. “The opportunities we can create, when we break the press, can sometimes outweigh the risks. I think we’re now showing we’re competent enough to be able to play out from the back. It’s something we’ve been working on and also the trust we have in each other as well.”
“It’s completely different from when you were here,” Will said to Anthony. “You have to adapt. Teams will watch us from video analysis, and they’ll attempt to press high when they set-up against us. You kind of have to learn when to do it and when not to, but the gaffer wants to play a certain way and we have to stick with it. You have to raise the standards, as that’s how he wants to play.”
Anthony also found out about the shift in mentality from those in the group who were with us in League One last season.
“We’ve probably been punching above our weight for the last few years,” said Will. “We’ve done really well to get to where we are as a club – starting from nothing and working our way up the leagues.
“We want to be a side that’s winning games of football again and sometimes in life you have to take one step back to then go two steps forward again. Looking at it from another perspective, that’s what we have to kind of do. Now we want to go and win as many games as we can and get ourselves back up there.”
Of course, there was also time to talk fashion among the boys with Anthony producing a clip from his time with the Dons when Will wore a leather jacket!
Find out more with Anthony Wordsworth, in conversation with Nik Tzanev and Will Nightingale below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.