Dons boss Robinson reveals the 'bust-ups' he had with Jon Brady ahead of reunion with his old friend

Tonight's opposing managers, Cobblers boss Jon Brady and Wimbledon's Mark Robinson, are close friends off the pitch - but that wasn't always the case.

The two have taken a similar path to reach their respective positions, both achieving success in youth football before taking on the main job midway through last season.

Robinson got one over his old mate in a dramatic relegation six-pointer towards the end of last term, and they come face-to-face again tonight in the Carabao Cup.

“I know Jon really well,” said Robinson. “We’ve become good friends, but that wasn’t the case when we first met to be honest!

"It’s quite funny - our first couple of meetings, Jon (Northampton U18s manager at the time) and I didn’t get on too well. We had a couple of little bust-ups on the touchline. We had very different styles.

“We’d never met. In the first game we had a little bit of a bust-up over something – the second one we had a bigger bust-up! Then we decided to sit down and just chat and over that he’s become a really, really good friend. He’s someone I’ve got loads of respect for.

“When he came into academy football, he was someone that the league really needed. He brought a realism to it. It was such a test to play his teams and, in the end, if I’m honest, he made the league better because of his approach to games. He ended up making our players better.

“He’s someone I respect a lot, but tomorrow night we need to turn them over! I know his team will run through brick walls for him because he's that type of person and we've got to be ready for that and make sure we're at our best.

"Jon will need time to implement his ideas but he did well last season and they were unfortunate to go down. You could see he was starting to put his identity on them and that's even more the case now."