Dons boss wanted to see his players ‘under duress’ in Ipswich Town friendly

AFC Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson has talked about the benefits gained from Saturday’s 3-0 friendly defeat to Ipswich Town.

The Dons lost at Plough Lane with Tyreece John-Jules scoring twice and Sam Morsy also on target.

“The games we’ve played so far, a lot has been us in the ascendency,” Jackson told the club’s website. “That’s great, to see players on the ball – today I got to see a lot of players out of possession, not on the ball and what they can do. I’ll have seen some stuff I liked and some stuff I perhaps didn’t like that will help my decision-making going forward.

“It was a tough day. We were coming up against some really strong opposition there. They have got a lot of good players and a depth of squad. They are a level above and a team I expect to be right up the top of the league. We knew it would be a tough test and that’s what we wanted.

“It’s important we see the make-up of the group under duress.

“We knew they’d have a lot of the ball and we’d have to try and combat that. We did okay at times and other times they were able to pick us off a little bit. There are lots of lessons learned that we go away and work on, building up to the league campaign.”

New signing Kyle Hudlin did not feature.

The Dons have taken the towering centre-forward, 22, on loan from Huddersfield Town. The temporary switch comes just days after he completed a move to the Terriers from Solihull Moors.

“Kyle will be down over the weekend and joining the group on Monday,” said Jackson.