‘Good idea’ – Dons boss Jackson on his starting 11 plans for Gillingham opener

AFC Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson says he has a “good idea” of the starting 11 he wants to select for this weekend’s League Two opener against Gillingham.

This Saturday’s first game of the season will be Jackson’s first competitive game in charge of the Dons after taking over in the summer.

The Dons head into League Two on the back of a 27-game winless run and their first relegation as a phoenix club.

In the final pre-season friendly against Oxford United, Jackson handed the majority of the game time to the starting line up. The first substitutions came in the 67th minute when Kyle Hudlin and Isaac Ogundere replaced Lee Brown and Josh Davison.

“Yeah, I feel as though I have a good idea of where I want to go with it,” Jackson told the South London Press of his starting line up for Saturday.

“I have got a lot of options because a lot of people have done well in pre-season, and there is a lot of competition for places now – the lads are really pushing each other.

“But I have got a good idea of where I want to go with it and how we’re going to go about things.”

The Dons brought in Jamie Johnson until the end of the January transfer window to act as Head of Recruitment and work alongside Jackson to assemble his squad for League Two.

“He’s been really good – really important for me,” said Jackson.

“He’s someone that I’m in constant dialogue with now, and he’s someone who can help me with the workload, identifying players, and can help to deal with the agents and negotiations.

“He knows the level inside out – he knows players across the board. He has got a really good knowledge, and he knows football as well.

“He’s someone I have been working really closely with, and [we’re] forming a really good partnership.”