Lewie: Lessons must be learned after Dons relegation

A 4-1 thumping at the hands of Brentford at stadium:mk was the final nail in the coffin, sending Dons back to League 1 with two games still to play.

“Lessons will be learned from this season,” said Lewington afterwards. “It’s difficult, but we know there are ways we could improve or could have done things better.

“When we come back again, we can heed these lessons and come back stronger.

“We’ve got to clear the decks a bit, come back fresh, get some new faces in and kick on. There will be time for feeling sorry for yourself and getting over the disappointment, but as soon as pre-season training starts again, we’ve got to bounce back.

“We’ve had a taste of the Championship, and we want more.”

Manager Karl Robinson admitted he felt his side simply weren’t good enough all season in his post match analysis, and Lewington agrees, adding that no one reason was the route cause of Dons’ return to League 1 at the first time of asking.

He said: “It is hard to pinpoint a single reason. It has been one or two percent everywhere. As a team, we’ve played some alright stuff, we’ve made a few mistakes and missed a few chances. It’s not like we’ve been completely terrible at one end, because then we could fix it. When you add up the percentages, we just come up short.

“We knew today was the last chance saloon, but we just weren’t good enough. We tried, but that’s the story of our season.

“Teams are a lot more clinical, and we cannot afford to give away chances. That has been the difference. If you don’t take your chances, they will.”