Competition for places is keeping goal-scorer Offord on his toes
There are a lot of options at the back for MK Dons
With competition fierce for places in MK Dons’ defence, Luke Offord admits he is being kept on his toes.
While the club’s seven league game clean sheet streak came to an end in first-half stoppage time against Crawley Town on Tuesday night, the 25-year-old made up for it with his first goal of the season as Dons left the Broadfield Stadium with a 1-1 draw.
It comes after he had a part to play in two of Dons’ five goals three days prior against Cheltenham Town, with one of those being to set up centre-back partner Jack Sanders for the opener.
Looking over his shoulder, Offord can see the likes of Nathan Thompson, Marvin Ekpiteta, Sam Sherring and Laurence Maguire all vying for a start in the back four and with competition fierce for a spot, he knows he cannot afford to let his standards drop.
“The competition is good because we know if we come off it we’ll lose our place,” he said. “If you don’t perform, someone will come in and take our place. You only have to look at the bench, and then the players who aren’t in the squad to see how strong we are. It’s only benefiting the players who are playing because we have to be on our game.”
For the first time since April, Offord and Sanders were on the receiving end of a goal on Tuesday when Ade Adeyemo fired home for Crawley in the seventh minute of time added on at the end of the first-half. And it was a goal Offord was not too happy about conceding.
He continued: “The goal was a bit disappointing. It was a header off another head, a shot deflected to another man, it was a scrappy one to give away. They had a few more half-chances but I thought we battled well.
“We’ve had a good defensive record since the manager has come in, we’ve not looked like conceding but it was going to happen at some point wasn’t it. Hopefully, we get another clean sheet on Saturday and can get another run going.”
On his goal though, Offord added: “I just snuck around the back, and I was in the right place to get the goal. I saw Geth take a touch to get it out of his feet, and I know he’s got a good delivery so I spun around the back to get it in.
“It was a good time to get the goal. There were a lot of chances in the first-half where we could have scored, and they got that goal just before half-time. After I scored, we were pushing for the winner.”