Pre-season games helpful in building a winning mentality at MK Dons
Losing became a habit last season
Victories in pre-season might not mean much on the grand scheme of things, but a winning mentality is something Richie Barker is eager to see at MK Dons.
Arriving with the side in the dumps at the wrong end of League Two, Barker, assistant to head coach Paul Warne, returned to Stadium MK in April tasked with, initially at least, keeping them in the Football League after a miserable run of form since Christmas which saw them plummet into a relegation battle.
While they ended the season unbeaten, with a win and three draws, the problems were evident, not least with the club’s losing habits.
Though they would lose their first pre-season game against St Mirren out in Spain - a game Warne admitted he treated as a fitness exercise for his side - Dons have since picked up wins against non-league sides Hitchin and Brackley.
Warne and Barker are watching out for several indicators during the early games, but the want to win is something too they are eager to see more of.
“We want winning to become a habit,” said Barker. “It’s not the be-all-and-end-all of these games but we want it to be a habit, and keeping clean sheets.
“If the ball is rolling downhill, the first thing you have to do is stop it. And it was last season, which resulted in some not very entertaining games. We got over the line, but we had to stop them conceding goals and losing matches.
“Hopefully, we’ve stopped it rolling now, and we can start pushing it back up. It will get harder, but we want it to.”
Though the opposition has been non-league thus far, Dons will take on Wealdstone and League One side Doncaster Rovers in a double-header on Saturday, before facing two more League One sides in the form of Peterborough and Stevenage before kicking off their League Two campaign against Oldham Athletic on Saturday August 2.
Barker hopes the challenge of taking on more difficult opponents will also help them in their preparations, adding: “We know the opposition will get harder and the tests will too but we hope the players will get fitter, the information understanding will get better too. We want them to enjoy winning, that’s what the game is about.
“We want it to be entertaining, to get bums off seats, but we have to win. There is no bad time to get into a winning habit.”