University of Bedfordshire students help the MK Dons

The essential testing assesses the players’ fitness and agility levels. It was carried out by Head of Sport Science Damien Doyle, and Bedford University graduate Tom Bromley, who is now working as the Dons First Team and Academy Sports Scientist.

First year students on the BSc Strength and Conditioning course, Aaron Millar, Elliot Plant, Liam Brown and Oliver Taylor all helped conduct tests using a range of mobile equipment.

“It gives us an idea of what we need to work on,” said MK Dons player Ben Reeves.

“It gives us a target to try and hit in the future.”

Student Oliver enjoyed the hands on opportunity: “I’d definitely recommend this course, especially because you get to work with such a big academy and a few days ago we were working with the first team as well.

“It just shows that we can progress and work with high performing and well regarded athletes,” he said.

Head of Sports Science Damien was appreciative of their support.

“The guys came down and helped set up, as well as assist with the testing we did,” he said.

“They brought with them equipment which isn’t available to us at MK Dons, such as speed gates, which is a big help to us.

“They were heavily involved in all our testing and without them we couldn’t have got the quality of results that we’ve got.”