Winger Dean Bowditch revealed his disappointment after the Dons finished their 2012/13 home campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Scunthorpe United on Saturday.
Iron striker Karl Hawley’s 41st minute strike condemned the men from MK1 to their second loss in three games– a result which put an end to the team’s faint hopes of reaching the play-offs for a third straight season.
And Bowditch admitted after the game it was a sloppy opening 45 minutes coupled with a lack of clinical edge in front of goal that was to blame for a disappointing afternoon at stadiummk.
The 26-year-old forward told MK Dons Player: “(Saturday) was a disappointment. We wanted to finish on a high whether results elsewhere went for us or not.
“It was a sloppy first 45 minutes from us. We didn’t move the ball quick enough and I don’t think we created too many clear cut opportunities and the Gaffer told us that at half-time.
“He got us going (at half-time) and you could see that in the second half - I think we were in their box for the most of it. In the end I think we were unfortunate not to score as we had some better chances in the second half but it’s still not a great way to end our home season.
"If we’d have won but missed out because of other results then fair enough but on our last home game of the year we should be doing better than that.”
The defeat means the Dons face another season in the third tier of English football despite pre-season optimism that the side could attain promotion to the Championship for the first time in their history and Bowditch was frank in his personal assessment of the campaign.
“You can look at injuries and suspensions but ultimately it’s come down to inconsistency when we’ve played. Some games this season we’ve been out of this world, like a real Championship side. Other times, though, we’ve been way below-par and unfortunately for us that’s been the case too many times and so we will have a long hard look at ourselves in the summer and we’ll look to come back stronger.
“I’ve learnt a lot from this season. I’ve been in the game a while now but I haven’t had a season where I’ve so much expectation on myself and the team to almost win the League at the start of the season.
“We’re all kicking ourselves now, it’s a hard lesson that we’ve learnt but it’s something we won’t let happen again. We won’t make this mistake again.”
