Karl Robinson insists he and his players need to ‘stand up and be counted’ after their disappointing 3-0 defeat to Carlisle United at Brunton Park.
The Dons, who failed to make the most of a game in hand at Crewe last week, slipped even further behind the play-off places on Tuesday evening courtesy of goals from Cumbrians trio Lee Miller, Brad Potts and David Amoo.
In truth, the men from MK1 never really got going as they slipped to their 11th loss of the season and after the match their manager Robinson was quick to apologise to the brave 103 Dons supporters who had made the trip up to Cumbria for the match and issue a warning to his group of players.
Robinson said: “We’ve got to stand up and be counted. I feel sorry for the fans who have come all this way on a Tuesday night, only for us to put in that performance. The first 20 minutes was abysmal. There was no style, it was poor.
“We kept playing it backwards and sideways with nobody running in behind. Longy looked a threat but I felt sorry for him because he was isolated on his own. The front four didn’t click tonight for the second game on the spin and the defence conceded a number of goals again.
“When I see a talented team fail to perform I can only question the hunger and desire. The players have no excuses, there was no bite and I’ve got to put this right.
“The players let themselves down today, not the fans, not the Football Club, the players did and they know that. They’ve got 24 hours now to go away and take stock and come back to me with it. I know what I saw and I hope they’ve seen it to.
“The players on that pitch today should have done better than what they did but I do believe I need to bring some new players in. I’ve got one or two lined up that should make a difference but I need to make sure elements of the deal are right. We’ll see what we can do.”
