Gruelling training schedule will ‘taper but not drop off’ as Dons approach opener

With the first game of the season fast approaching, Graham Alexander said his demanding training schedule will begin to relent in the coming week.

Many of the players have spoken of the gruelling schedule and tough physical expectations put on them by the new head coach in the first weeks of pre-season training. The squad is yet to win a pre-season game, but are also yet to play without having trained before hand too.

Alexander’s focus throughout pre-season has been the opening day game against Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground, and following Dons’ final pre-season outing on Saturday against Northampton Town, the boss said training will start to be more ‘tapered’ so they go to Wales in as good a condition as they can.

“It will taper,” he said. “It won’t completely drop off, it will always be tough throughout the season. Pre-season is not a five or six week programme and it stops, it just continues in different ways.

“We’ll train hard this week, and we’ll start to get more specific in our tactical work towards Wrexham. I’ve seen an improvement from the group and from individuals.

“It's a process we have to go through. There's a big turnaround in what's happened before. It won't happen overnight so we have to have an idea of what the long-term target looks like and the steps we have to take to get there.

“Physically, the players are miles better than they were three weeks ago, that's the biggest thing and tactically, we know what we're doing.”