Richie Barker spoke after MK Dons’ 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday
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The narrow defeat to a strong Tottenham Hotspur side can give MK Dons heart heading into the League One campaign.
Beaten only by a stellar Mateus Fernandes volley, fresh from his £85 million move from West Ham, after three minutes at the north London club’s training ground on Wednesday, Dons had the ball in the net courtesy of impressive youngster Brooklyn Kazungu only to see it chalked off while Ben Wiles saw a deft header expertly tipped over by keeper Martin Dubrovka.
Given the strength of the side put out by Roberto De Zerbi in both halves of the game, assistant head coach Richie Barker said he was delighted with how Dons performed against top-flight opposition, saying they will be able to take a lot of confidence into facing League One opposition next month when the season kicks off.
“We played against world class players and if we can do that, respectfully, when it comes to League One, we’ll be ok,” said Barker. “We’re really pleased. The lads have had two really tough days leading into the game and we were a little worried about a couple of them but we’ve come through injury free. It’s all about progressing to the weekend and then upping the minutes again.
“I feared the worst after they put home that volley early on, but in fairness to the lads, we stuck to the task and we created a couple of changes ourselves. I was more impressed with our in-possession game than our out-of-possession stuff, which sounds odd considering we didn’t have much of the ball.
“What an amazing place to come and pay, and thanks to Tottenham for inviting us. And what an experience for the younger players. It was a really successful day.