'The happiest person was my wife' - MK Dons assistant manager and ex-Reds boss Barker on facing his son Charlie
Richie Barker said his wife was the happiest person in the family after two draws between MK Dons and Crawley Town.
The former Reds boss came up against his son Charlie on Tuesday night in a game that ended in a 0-0 drew.
In August at the Broadfield Stadium, it ended 1-1 between the two sides so the spolis were shared this season between the clubs – and between father and son.
But Barker said it ‘was a bit strange' watching his son play in the opposition. “I’d like to say it was really easy, but it wasn’t!” he said. “Obviously, I’ve seen Crawley play a lot through Charlie, so it’s the club I know the most about other than ourselves. There was no getting away from it being a bit strange, being in the technical area and he runs past me to get the ball to take a throw. "From a family point of view it’s two draws so the happiest person was my wife because she wasn’t sure which way she was going to go! "Obviously I wanted to win the game, the ideal scenario would have been us winning and Charlie getting man of the match! We ended up in between the two in the end. "I’ve watched him loads, of course, but competing against him and watching from pitch level, I thought he did alright, that’s as far as I’ll say! That’s the most praise he’ll get from me!"
And does Charlie go to his dad for advice? "I spend most of my coaching working with the defenders, I quite like that side of it,” said Barker. “Sometimes he’ll ask my advice and we’ll watch his clips back together. As a centre-forward, one benefit I have is knowing what strikers don’t like to play against and what caused me the biggest issues."