Dons must learn how to win again says Karl Robinson

MK Dons manager Karl Robinson during the Sky Bet Championship match between Ipswich Town and Milton Keynes Dons at Portman Road, Ipswich, England on 30 April 2016. Photo by Simon Davies. PNL-160430-175108002

In an all-too familiar story, Dons conceded in the 90th minute at Portman Road to lose 3-2 to Ipswich Town, sending them to 23rd in the table with one game remaining.

Without a win since early March, Dons’ future was decided last week with relegation back to League 1, but Robinson hopes to go into the final game at home to Nottingham Forest to put on a winning display.

“A winning mentality comes in the dying moments when players put their bodies on the line, and we haven’t had that enough this season. We need an overhaul and everything needs to change.

“We have to go about it in the right manner. Seeing the young players rejuvenated me today. But we have to change our mentality.

“It will be a long time before our next competitive game after Saturday, so our mentality has to be right. And we have to go into the next league trying to win it.

“The players have shown what it takes to be at this club. We’ve got to take a winning mentality into next season.

“The last few weeks have really hit some people hard, and you can see that in them. People need to deal with negativity in a better way. Some people get too high with winning and low when losing. We need to find the balance.”

David McGoldrick put Ipswich ahead after 16 minutes, but he gave away a penalty on the stroke of half time allowing Alex Revell to equalise.

Brett Pitman headed the home side ahead on 68 minutes but Revell netted his second seven minutes later as the game headed towards a draw.

But a stoppage time header from Luke Varney snatched it at the death for Ipswich.

“We played well against a top 10 Championship team,” Robinson added. “Just looking at their goal-scorers shows the quality of this team.

“But in the 90th minute, we make one mistake and Ipswich capitalised on it. It signifies most of the season. And looking at the players here, you see how far off we really are.

“It was a weird game. It was evenly contested, and both sides tried their best. Their first goal was a great ball in, but we put together a great move to win the penalty. But we had three set pieces we over hit or under hit, they had one and put it on the button. We’ll learn an awful lot from this.

“A lot of fingers need to be pointed at me obviously, because I am to blame, but it is what it is at the moment.”