AFC Wimbledon and Stevenage will face off this afternoon as both sides look to gain essential points ahead of the final stages of the 2025-26 League One season.
The Wombles come into the game in eleventh place and are just six points away from the play-off places. A win could reduce this gap to three points should other results go their way.
Stevenage sit in a similar position, with the outfit embedded in the middle of the race for the play-off places.
As one of two sides on 54 points, alongside Reading, a win, alongside both Reading and Huddersfield Town dropping points would see Alex Revell’s side climb into the play-off spots.
Now, Stevenage’s chances of a good result have been boosted with AFC Wimbledon missing players for the fixture.
Speaking to the club media about his squad ahead of the game, Jackson state: “Tills [James Tilley] is going to be out. We’re just waiting on some results back from his scan to have more of an idea, but he’s not going to be available.
“Bish [Nathan Bishop] is getting better every day with his elbow, so he’ll train today with a view to being involved and Patrick, obviously, he was more fatigued.
“With Pat [Patrick Bauer], we’ve asked a lot of him, coming from not playing much to being in the team, playing lots of football in consecutive weeks, really, and I think that just took its toll at that stage of the game.
“So he’d come off, but it was more precautionary, really, and Johnno [Ryan Johnson] had to come off as well, precautionary.
“We need to look at all those boys this morning. Joe Lewis obviously came in and did great, so it’s good to have him back and available.
“We’ll just have to have a good look at the boys this morning, the squad, and see where we go with it.”
Providing his opinion on the balance between physical and mental fitness between games, the manager explained: “The main focus of training today will be a lot of the video stuff that we do, to give the boys an idea of what’s coming on Saturday.
“So we’ll have a good look at Stevenage and what they do in and out of possession. We’ll touch a little bit on some of that on the training pitch, but yes, it won’t be for long.
“I trust they respond well to the video work, and I think it’s a similar challenge to what we’ve been facing in the last few games, you know, with Northampton and Blackpool.
“I went to Stevenage on Tuesday night, [for their game against Leyton Orient] and had a good look at them there.
“So a team who, we know what they do, but they do it really well – we need to be ready for that, but we’ll make sure that the boys are.”
Now, fans may turn their attention to see who can step up during the clash.
