Notts County Player/Coach Alan Smith is relishing the Sky Bet League 1 game against his former side MK Dons, but knows it will be another tough task at Meadow Lane on Boxing Day.
MK Dons come into the game on Friday brimming with confidence, after a 7-0 win over Oldham Athletic last time out and Smith feels that this could be the season that his former side secure the promotion that has eluded them in recent seasons.
The Notts midfielder told Magpie Player: “They’re not everyone’s favourite team obviously, because of the Wimbledon connection, but as a football club, anyone who’s been there, the stadium’s outstanding, it is a Premier League stadium really and they’re all geared up to move forward and I think that they’ll have a great opportunity this year.
“They’ve been close on a number of occasions, I think they’ve lost in two or three semi-finals of the play-offs and there’s a good set of lads down there, people who I became friends with and still stay in contact with now, which is quite unusual for me!
“It’s such a family-run club, from the Chairman right through to the people who work in the Ticket Office and around the ground, so I think from the outside it’s got a massively different perception, certainly from my experiences down there and as a club, like I say, it’s all geared up to go to the next level and they’ve just got to get over the line but hopefully we won’t be doing them any favours.”
When asked if he felt that it was important for Notts to improve their record against some of the top teams in the division, Smith countered by saying that Notts are just focussing on their own game and take each opponent as they come.
“I don’t think we’ve got to worry about that too much to be honest,” he added. “We don’t really worry about any of the teams that we play against, we know that we’re capable of getting results and we know that, if we’re right, then we can cause upsets along the way.”
Subscribers can watch the full interview with Alan Smith on Magpie Player.