More than just pride at stake when MK Dons take on AFC Wimbledon

Captain Alex Gilbey has not had to do much explaining to the MK Dons dressing room to get across the importance of Thursday night’s clash with AFC Wimbledon.

The history between the sides has been played out 18 times since the first in 2012, with the side from MK1 claiming the spoils in half of them. However, without a win over their rivals in the last four, and still looking for their first win back in League One this season, the pressure is mounting on Gilbey and his team-mates to make one stick.

Himself having featured in half of the games down the years, Gilbey said there is no room for individual ego heading into the fixture, with greater things at stake than just personal pride.

“This one is massive,” he said. “I’m a football fan, so I know what these sorts of games mean. They’re bigger than us, bigger than the changing room on a Saturday. This is for the club, for the fanbase and everyone connected. It’s a massive thing, something everyone needs to buy into.

“There is so much politics that goes along with it, so you have to park your ego and do it for more than just the 18 lads beside you. It’s for the fans and for the club.

“Because of the politics, it’s always on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Everyone understands, whatever your opinion of it. But we all know how important it is, and we’ve got a dressing room full of men now who know what it means to the fanbase.

“Going to their place especially, they’ll want to kill us and we want to kill them. That’s part and parcel of it, so we have to play for the badge.”

While the majority of the dressing room, new to the game, Gilbey said head coach Paul Warne, a first-timer to the fixture in his own right, is the ideal man to lead the side into battle at Plough Lane on Thursday night.

“I don’t think we’ve got a better manager in the EFL to prepare us for it,” Gilbey added. “He has been there, and has every shirt possible. He knows what it means and that’s what you need in these situations.”