Fond Cambridge memories will be put to one side for Darling

Harry Darling celebrates his goal against Stevenage in the FA Cup. Taking on his former club Cambridge on Saturday, he hopes MK Dons come out on top

Former allegiances will be put to one side on Saturday when Harry Darling takes on Cambridge United in front of his friends and family.

Darling spent five years at the Abbey Stadium, coming through the ranks, establishing himself in the first team before making the move to MK Dons last January where he has barely missed a game since.

Like George Williams in the opposite camp, who left Stadium MK the day before Darling’s move was confirmed, the defender was full of praise for his former club ahead of the match tomorrow, but insisted he only has one aim in mind.

“It will be a good day for me personally but I’m an MK player and I’m going out there to win,” he said. “I’m buzzing to be fair. I obviously know a lot of the players over there, I know the manager really well and I know a lot of my friends and family will be there as well.

Harry Darling made more than 70 appearances for Cambridge United before making the move to MK Dons in January

“I had a good time there, I loved it and I haven’t got a bad word to say about it. But I want to win tomorrow.

“We’ve got a game plan, we know how Cambridge play so we’ll go out and try and win.”

Dons have had a disrupted time of things over the last two weeks, with two players testing positive for Covid-19 and several more forced to isolate as a result.

With all but one of the players back in training on Thursday, Darling said: “It has been different but that’s the world we’re living in now.

“We’re so privileged to even be playing football, so when these things happen we have to take the right safety precautions. As long as they’re all healthy, we’ll be in a good place.”