Actions must speak louder than words at MK Dons

“People don't want to hear the cliches,” Tennai Watson acknowledged on Thursday after a tough week for MK Dons.

Discontent amongst the fans reached a new level following the club’s 1-0 defeat to Port Vale last Saturday, with an open letter from Sporting Director Liam Sweeting on Wednesday doing little but stoking the fires burning outside Stadium MK.

With three huges, and potentially season defining game for Dons coming up against Cambridge United, Accrington Stanley and Morecambe - all teams in and around the drop zone - Watson said he knows fans don’t want to hear the tired cliches usually spouted in times such as these, and said the only thing everyone wants is a result to lift the mood again.

“Action is results, and that has to be the next step. Game-day is where it matters,” he said. “People don't want to hear the cliches, but as a group, all we can do is stick together, work hard, look at things and reassess. It's obvious we haven't been good enough, and looking back at that, reflecting and moving fowards is the aim for all of us.

“From a personal stand-point, I want to sit here all day and tell you we need the fans, and we're playing out of our skin for the fans, but no-one wants to hear that until it's done. And I think that's fair. All the boys know that.”

‘The fans have their opinions’

Head coach Mark Jackson too said the only way to give the fans something to cheer about was to get back to winning ways, beginning on Saturday against Cambridge.

He said: “The fans have their opinions of what they feel, we can’t control that. All we can control is what we do on the pitch. We’re all driving towards getting the win on Saturday.

“We're aware of (the discontent), we know the position we're in, we know recent performances haven't been up to the standard we expect.

“We're all working hard behind the scenes, we're all driving forward, we've got clear objectives to turn this around and we're confident we can do that.”