Chesterfield defeat is one of Baldock's lowest moments at MK Dons

"This is one of the lowest points for us," said Dons right back George Baldock after another calamitous night at Stadium MK.
George BaldockGeorge Baldock
George Baldock

Chesterfield, having lost eight in a row in League 1, became the 10th team to take points away from MK1 - the sixth to leave with all three - as Dons came from behind to lead, only to throw it all away again in a 3-2 defeat.

Although the scenario remains the same - Dons in 21st, a point away from safety - the playing field looks now distinctly different, with Dons clearly a side struggling for form, confidence and a winning mentality.

"I for one felt we'd be pushing at the top of the table, but it hasn't gone to plan this season," said Baldock. "People talked about play-offs, but I had my heart set on the top two. It's not even Christmas and we're so far off, and that's very disappointing.

"A win on Saturday will probably take us out of the relegation zone, but we'll still be firmly in the scrap. It's not just a case of winning the next one, we have to take a look at ourselves and win a few in the row.

"We totally dominated, but they had a game plan. We made a few mistakes and got punished. We've got to dig ourselves out of this."

Game management was the order of the day for Dons, but after trailing against the run of play to a Jay O'Shea penalty in the first half, they found themselves ahead courtesy of two somewhat fortuitous goals from Daniel Powell and Ryan Colclough.

But with 13 minutes to go, disaster struck not once but twice as Chesterfield substitutes Kristian Dennis and Dan Gardner found the back of the net after some amateur defending to hand the visitors their first win since September, while extending Dons' miserable home record.

Baldock said: "It's game management, and it's something we need to get better at. Richie highlighted that with us, and there's only so much he can do when we're on the pitch. It's not a managerial thing - we're professional footballers and we should see games like that out.

"At 2-1,I could only see one result. But we were trying to play split passes when we should have been keeping the ball, we missed headers and it cost us. We have to seriously look at ourselves.

"We looked a bit naive. Time and time again we could get into good areas, but we turned it down and we lost.

"We've got a monkey on our backs and we're desperately trying to get it off. We know the fans demand more because we demand more of ourselves as well. It's just so frustrating we can't get that win for them.

"But we go again - I know it's not what fans want to hear, and it's not really what I want to say, but it's the only way to go forward."