Nombe is playing match-minute catch-up after first-half return for MK Dons
Assistant head coach Richie Barker spoke after MK Dons’ pre-season defeat against Wealdstone
Sam Nombe is still about two weeks behind where MK Dons coaches want him to be in terms of match fitness after he was given his first minutes of pre-season on Saturday.
The 27-year-old played the first-half of Dons’ 2-0 defeat to Wealdstone at Grosvenor Vale on Saturday, with a couple of half-sights of goal for his efforts.
While many of the players were given 90 minutes of action against the National League side, and another group of players doing the same against Arsenal earlier in the day as the squad was split in two, Nombe made a solid impression on assistant head coach Richie Barker who took control of the side.
“He hasn’t played a minute in pre-season yet,” Barker said. “So 45 minutes was as far as we were willing to go, safely.
“He was good, but there were a couple of bits - he was offside in periods of good play - but he gave us a focal point, something we’ve been looking for with his runs in behind and a good work ethic.
“He was blowing a bit at the end, which is understandable because he’s probably two weeks behind from a minutes point of view. We’ve got to catch him up as safely as possible.”
Getting minutes into the legs superseded the score line for Barker, though he admitted he was a little frustrated with the way the game panned out against Wealdstone, but overall he was satisfied to see the majority of the team come through unscathed first and foremost.
He said: “The aim on Friday morning was to get 20 or so players to 90 minutes on Saturday. Sam only played 45, Jay (Matete) and Will (Collar) shared the minutes, but predominantly it was about getting 90 minutes into the players.
“There were some frustrating things, some really good things but there is no getting away from the fact that we’ve got a lot of players who have played a lot of good minutes. That’s the next step in kicking off in the next couple of weeks.
“We tried to split the teams as equally as we could to get different players as much time out there as we could so I would be amazed if you ever saw that 11 playing together again but that’s not what it’s about.
“This was a big tick box, this was the 90-minutes weekend.”