Dons can't keep coming from behind says Samir

For the third successive game, Dons fell two goals behind, as Josh Cullen and Billy Clarke capitalised on shaky defending to hammer their side into pole position after just 16 minutes.

Carruthers was introduced to the action just before half time, replacing injured Darren Potter, and changed the complexion of the game.

Karl Robinson felt his side needed to be more forthcoming with chances on goal, while Carruthers feels Dons cannot afford to let teams get head starts and must start the game willing to be the instigators.

“It feel like we’re waiting for the opposition to make the first move,” he said. “We’re going a goal, two goals down and then playing. We need to do that from the first minute.

“We have a never die attitude, and on another day, we could have won it. On another day, we’d have won it and we’d all be smiling. But that’s football, it’s not every day we can go out and score three or four. It’ll come.

“We were a lot better in the second half, and if we can play like that, we’ll do well in this division, we’ll beat a lot of teams.

“On another day, we’ll have a game where we only get three shots and we’ll score all three. That’s just football.”

Carruthers missed the last two games with a groin injury he sustained at Shrewsbury on the opening day of the season. Having just one training session this week, he was thrown back into the action after 43 minutes, replacing Darren Potter, who was nursing a hip flexor problem.

While he wasn’t expecting to go into the game quite so early, the 23-year-old felt like he came through it well.

He continued: “It was a surprise to go in so early. I felt I was mentally ready, but I wasn’t expecting to play much tonight. I’ve only had one training session, so it was quite difficult to get to the pace of the game, but I felt I did all right.

“The medical team have done unbelievably well to get me back this quickly. It has only been a week, so I’m really grateful to the medical staff.

“I thought it would be a lot worse than it was. Obviously it was a set back and I was very angry, but I’m back playing already, so I can’t be too disappointed.

“I’ve had a knee injury which ruled me out for six months, so you’ve got to be grateful for what you’ve got.”