A conversation we've had too many times - Martin on Burton defeat

For the 10th time in 17 games, MK Dons 'shot themselves in the foot' by conceding inside the opening 15 minutes on Saturday.

Burton had just two wins to their name prior to kick off at Stadium MK on Saturday, but should have had the game wrapped up by the interval as a poor Dons side limped to the break, trailing to Colin Daniel's eighth-minute goal.

It could have been worse too, with Ryan Edwards the key man for the visitors, though equally, Cameron Jerome had two great chances at the other end to put things right for Russell Martin's side.

A much-improved Dons emerged for the second period and were level with 16 minutes remaining - Scott Fraser converting from the spot against his former club for a share of the spoils.

In front of 2,000 fans at Stadium MK though, the topic of conversation was Dons conceding early again and being the root cause of their problems.

"It's a conversation we've had too many times," said Martin afterwards. "I'm very hurt by the first half. We didn't start well, it has happened too many times. But what we talked about before the game, I didn't see. That's not like us.

"That's why we're in the position we're in. We feel frustrated because most of the performances have been better than 17th in the league, but that's why we're there. We're hurting ourselves, it has to stop.

"We didn't respond well to conceding, we got worse which isn't like us. Our mentality wasn't right, it took us way too long to adapt to how they set up. We've watched Burton and they've never set up like that, but they've sniffed blood with us – and teams are doing that now. They're putting energy into that first 15 minutes to get something from us and for some reason we aren't able to cope with that. It's hurtful, and it's hurting us as a group.

"The second half was outstanding, we showed a lot of character, but even after we scored, we had a funny five minutes because Burton changed their approach, so we have to adapt better to scenarios in games. Really what we have to do is stop conceding first in games, I don't know how many times I've said it.

"The second half was played without ego, with intensity, aggression, responsibility – everything we didn't do in the first half. The balance is hard for me – the first half hurt me, but I'm proud of the second half and the way we came back."

Asked whether Dons should simply 'park the bus' in the opening stages of games to try and prevent teams getting an early goal, Martin said: "If you start like that, it is hard to regain control. We've worked on a few different ways of starting the game and we didn't see any of those today. We have to find a way of stopping it to stay true to who we are, but we have to stop it because it's ridiculous really.

"Every goal has been different. We've started games well and conceded out of nowhere, today was a goal from the second phase of a set-piece."