Nightmare deadline day has to be addressed

He might have got everything he wanted, but Graham Alexander described the final day of the transfer window as a nightmare.

The signings of Joe Tomlinson, Ellis Harrison and Anthony Stewart were all signed, sealed and delivered on Friday, but only the first of those was able to be completed in time to be included in Saturday’s matchday squad.

It was the same for every club though - the deadline falling on a Friday meant any transfers completed after midday would miss the cut for the fixtures the following day.

The 11pm deadline also meant Alexander could not be on hand at Stadium MK to help get deals over the line, as he was in the team hotel in Cheshire with his squad prior to their game with Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road.

From the timing of the deadline, to having to work on deals with Sporting Director Liam Sweeting remotely, the head coach said having the deadline on a Friday was a disaster.

“It was a nightmare,” he said. “When you put this deadline in place, surely you look at the date and see it's the day before a game. It's a joke really. But we managed to get through it.

“We prepared a team for today and left the majority of the work to Liam (Sweeting) because that's the way we do it. He managed to do some brilliant work.

“It went right to the wire, but I'm glad we're out of it to be honest.”

While the time of the deadline was a bone of contention, Alexander was pleased with the business Dons managed to get over the line in time.

He continued: “We're delighted with the business we've done. It's 'plug in and play' from the talent side of things, but we'll have to see where they are physically and tactically.

“We've got a few weeks now without a midweek game to get valuable training time to put that work in place.”