Avoiding defeat important for the psyche says Tucker after Dons snatch draw

Although the result makes no real difference, Jack Tucker said it was important to avoid defeat to King’s Lynn Town on Saturday.

A scrappy own goal two minutes from time sparred Dons’ blushes at The Walk, having trailed since the 35th minute to Gold Omotayo’s header.

It rounded out back-to-back games in Norfolk, having beaten a Norwich side 6-0 on Friday with many of the players taking part in both.

Tucker played an hour against Norwich and 27 minutes against King’s Lynn a day later. And although the result was not as convincing as perhaps it should have been against the National League North side, the 22-year-old said avoiding defeat was a good habit to have.

“It technically doesn't matter at all but winning is a good habit, like clean sheets are for defenders,” he said. “Every time I'm on the pitch I want to keep a clean sheet, and we want to win games.

“We want to play our best all the time but that can't happen so even though that goal was a bit scrappy at the end, it was important not to lose. Plenty of things to work on.

“We were a bit too passive in the first half, we didn't test them enough in behind as we should have so it made them a bit easier to defend, but in the second half we changed it up and caused them a few more issues. It was good to get more minutes in the legs, and that's the main thing in pre-season.

“We played two games as well and they were two different tests, so it was good to get that mixture to see what we might come up against next year in League One.

“They made it hard for us,so fair play to them. We like to treat it as any other game, so seeing some of those tackles flying in is what we'd see in a normal game so we'd treat a friendly just the same.”