Mitch Clark is confident of more clean sheets this season as Accrington Stanley look to maintain their unbeaten start to the League One campaign at MK Dons on Saturday.
John Coleman has made it his team’s priority this season to iron out the mistakes which led to the Reds leaking 80 league goals in 2021/22.
Injuries in the Reds’ defence has meant Coleman has had to shuffle his pack in the three league games so far but right back Clark is hoping the defence can click quickly and build on their last clean sheet – at Shrewsbury on their only away day so far this season, after Forest Green Rovers was postponed on Tuesday.
“We work on defence in training every day,” said the 23-year-old. “If you look at our current back four, Harvey Rodgers is the oldest at 25 then we have Mo (Sangare) at left back, Lukas (Jensen) the goalkeeper is only young and Ryan (Astley) as well.
“It’s a new back four so it won’t gel as quickly as people are hoping but hopefully it will come soon. Hopefully we will see a change in us keeping clean sheets this season.”
Clark admitted he had a difficult start to life at the Wham Stadium as he struggled to secure a regular first team place last season after signing from Leicester.
However he worked his way into the team last season and has kept his place in this campaign.
“It was a difficult start. When I joined here, it took a while to get used to being away from home and my family and friends. It took longer than expected to hit the ground running.
“It affected my head space and took time to get used to.”
He was frustrated Forest Green Rovers was off with a waterlogged pitch, after the unbeaten Reds travelled down to Gloucestershire, but now he is focused on MK Dons on Saturday.
“It was disappointing as we have gone into the season with a good start, we are unbeaten.
“There have been a couple of games where we have been behind and come back late on and it shows the team spirit, we are never going to give up.
“I feel like we are a lot more fluid than last year when we are attacking, we are a good threat in the opponent’s half, we are full-on, we surround them and pressure them. We can hurt teams.
“It’s a weird time to play MK Dons. They didn’t have the greatest of starts but they won on Tuesday, they will be full of confidence they are off the mark but we are full of confidence too. We are not going there thinking anything other than a win.”
The full pre-match interview video with Mitch Clark is available to watch on the club's official YouTube channel, CLICK HERE to find out more!