Alexander is the latest victim in MK Dons’ managerial merry-go-round

Graham Alexander's time at MK Dons was short, but it highlighted once more something we've known for a while: this is a club in disarray.

Three head coaches have now had to carry the can in less than 12 months for not being able to get a halfway decent tune out of a team which continues to find new ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

Two stoppage time goals for Barrow, earning the Bluebirds an unlikely 2-2 draw at Stadium MK on Saturday, was the final straw for Alexander's tenure. Labouring on the club's return to League Two, 16th and eight without a win, was enough for chairman Pete Winkelman to pull the trigger again, putting the 51-year-old Scot out of his misery just six weeks after he was sitting top of the league and named Manager of the Month.

Since then though, the team's issues have continually and rapidly gotten worse: Jekyll and Hyde-like performances, where Dons go from in control and blind panic and capitulation at the first sign of pressure from the opposition; heads dropping and glum faces on the pitch; conceding goals which need to be seen to be believed.

Of course, Alexander is responsible for a lot of elements which have turned sour over the last few weeks. But some of the players do not look interested in being a part of the fight, visibly downing tools while others around them continue to battle on regardless. Others look fragile and capable of breaking following the shellshock of last season.

The air of expectation which Dons re-entered League Two with has also been the rope which has helped hang this situation. Not many drop into the fourth tier and hit the ground running immediately. Last season, none of the relegated clubs from League One finished in the top half of League Two. The arrogance to assume Dons could do better ignores the fundamental issue at hand: the team they have built is nowhere near up to the challenge. And with one former boss sitting pretty at the right end of League One, and another breaking a scoring record in his first game at his new club, the concern is, once again, whether the club have ditched the right people throughout this whole debacle.

Alexander is no slouch at this level - he's secured promotions, reached play-offs, and gotten to Wembley in the EFL Trophy with a side from League Two. But even he hasn't managed to get the players singing from the same hymn sheet, despite a scattering of individuals desperately trying to raise the group.

But in his 142 days in charge at MK Dons -just five days more than previous boss Mark Jackson - Alexander was not able to do that and has paid the price for it.