MK Dons (Home) 22.07.2026

While some senior players have featured in training, Vicario, Maddison, Kudus, Robertson and Udogie were notable by their absence.  Kudus being left out was more understandable, as he is still building up after his injury last season, but the inclusion of Solomon and Donley, who have both been in the rumour mill as possible departures from the club.

It was a warm evening, but with kick off at 17.00, it was starting to cool, although the effort the players put in did raise quite a sweat, while the MK Dons players used it as a training exercise, so much so that they only came wearing their training kit, which was un-numbered, making identification problematical.

Dons kicked off and rarely saw much of the ball for the remainder of the half.  It all started in the second minute, with Mathys Tel played in down the left by Mateus Fernandes and the Frenchman out in a waist-high ball to the near post that was met by Dominic Solanke only to be denied by McGillivray in the MK Dons goal at close range.  Mathys took the corner from out on the right wing and the keeper came to punch clear.  The ball got a yard or so outside the box and dropped from out of the sky to be met by Fernandes’ right boot, sending a stunning volley flying into the keeper’s top left hand corner.  It showed stunning technique to strike the ball so cleanly when coming down so quickly.

Manor Solomon played a one-two with Conor Gallagher and broke into the box in the seventh minute, hitting a shot that McGillivray kept out with a leg at the near post, with play continuing as Archie Gray flashed a ball across the face of goal from the right with nobody getting a touch on it.  Spurs had been dominating possession and on the one occasion MK got a ball into the box, it was intercepted by Kota Takai as the ball was worked back into the visitors’ half where it spent most of the half.

23 minutes into the match a cross in from the right produced a scorpion kick from Patterson to try to score, but he got it all wrong and the ball trickled through to Antonin Kinsky, who had a quiet 45 minutes, with only the opportunity to show off some calm footwork close to his line as he was closed down.  Somewhat surprisingly, a hydration break followed soon after with the temperature nothing like those in the World Cup, but with the match coming early in Tottenham’s build-up to the season they were probably keen to look after the players.

MK Dons threatened very rarely and the control of the game came from Spurs during a first half that showed the Tottenham players did well against their opponents who had already played two pre-season friendlies, although the only other effort on goal came in the 36th minute from Conor Gallagher, whose quickly taken 45 yard free-kick tried to catch the keeper off his line but cleared the fence behind the goal !

After a lengthy half-time interval (although there was not a show as in the World Cup final) play resumed and MK Dons were sharper after the break, probably more willing to test the younger Tottenham second half team.  They were closing quicker and more aggressive, as Richi found out as he got a good kicking from the replacement centre-half.  He did get the ball in the opposition net after 50 minutes when a good move started by Mikey Moore produced a neat pass by Dane Scarlett into the box where the Brazilian striker dinked the ball over the keeper, who had gone to ground, but it didn’t count as he had been flagged offside.

Spurs were pressing for a second as Moore made a run inside form the left to let go a shot that hit a defender and went for a corner, then Scarlett put in a dangerous ball from the right into the six-yard box that was just a bit behind Hyoek-Min Yang.  Trying to play out from the back, as they had done all match, Tottenham were dis-possessed and Patterson had a shot that Dubravka gathered as it was straight at him at his near post.  Following a 72nd minute MK Dons corner, the ball was bundled over the line, but Dubravka had been dragged to the ground and it was ruled out.

There was a great chance to make it 2-0 with 15 minutes to go, when Richi was through and his left foot shot from inside the box was beaten out, but play continued with Williams-Barnett playing a ball in over the back line with Yang running in to beat the keeper to it, but he was off balance and sliced his left-foot shot wide with an open goal in front of him.  Three minutes later, a ball played in to the near post from the Dons right was headed towards the middle of goal by Wiles, with Dubravka doing very well to dive left to push it over the bar.  There was only one more opportunity in the match three minutes from the end, as Luca Williams-Barnett accelerated out of the Spurs defensive third and found Mikey Moore.  Receiving the return pass he hit a shot that struck Scarlett on the back in an offside position.

So, a useful exercise in getting the players some match practice and some positive signs about the way Roberto De Zerbi wants the team to play and while the side failed to capitalise on the early goal, the Dons worked hard to stop much getting through to their keeper.  It was interesting to see how some of the players had developed over the summer, bulking up to withstand challenges and that they had obviously kept training through the summer to come back sharp and taking on board the manager’s instructions.

More games to come with different challenges, as the squad head off to New Zealand and Australia.