Martin laments 'worst half of football' since he took over MK Dons

MK Dons' first half performance in the 2-0 defeat to Crewe Alexandra on Saturday was the worst Russell Martin has seen since he took over the job last November.

Mikael Mandron and Oliver Finney netted the goals for the Railwaymen inside the opening 20 minutes as Dons capitulated at the Alexandra Stadium, registering just one shot on target throughout the game.

Dons are now 17 games without a win away from Stadium MK, but the writing was on the wall from early on.

For Martin, it was the worst performance he has seen from his side in the 28 matches he has taken charge of.

"I won't lie or dress it up – the first half is the worst it has been under me," he said. "It's a bad day. It's the worst performance we've had through pre-season, and we need to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"I'm not going to overreact or get emotional about it, it's upset me, they're disappointed in themselves and the most disappointing thing is we've let ourselves down. We're miles better than that. It's a poor performance and we have to follow it up with a good one.

"The feeling we had before the game was great, we found a good rhythm, and it surprised me. I'm still really positive about what we can achieve together. We just can't afford to have 45 minutes like that.

"I saw a lot of things that caused anxiety, worry and stress to players who haven't had that yet. It was a different challenge to what we prepared for. The goals were too easy.

"We were better in the second half, but we weren't threatening enough and conceded too many chances.

"We've deserved more than we got in the first two games, but today we got what we deserved.

"We got outplayed. Crewe were good today. They got the better of us physically and our mentality has to be stronger. When things don't go right for us, we have find it within ourselves to be better and stronger. I have faith in the players, and they believe in what we're doing but we have to justify it."