Chairman takes the blame for MK Dons’ final day drop to League Two

Pete Winkelman admitted until the final moments at Burton, he felt MK Dons would avoid relegation to League Two.

Dons needed a goal at the Pirelli Stadium on Sunday, knowing a win over the Brewers would see them safe and confirmed in the third tier. But despite having 31 attempts on goal, they failed to get one over the line and will be playing in the fourth tier from August.

The cost of the drop has already been felt by Mark Jackson and his coaching staff, sacked on Tuesday.

But the chairman said he is the one who must shoulder the responsibility of allowing the club to be relegated for the fourth time in their history.

“I'm devastated,” he said. “Obviously we've done post-mortems, but multiple things have gone wrong. I don't want to sit here and apologise, I'm taking full responsibility, but of course I am. At the end of the day, what's done is done. I'm asking myself all the time whether I could have done more to stop it.

“But even down to the last day, I thought we would be ok. It was still in our hands, we needed to score one goal. At the end of the game, it was like someone had gone. It was utterly devastating for myself and for the supporters. And for that, I am so sorry and as the chairman, I have to take that responsibility.

“It's more hurtful when you think of the money we spent this year, significantly more than we spent last year. It's absolutely not good at all. I can't white wash it.

“But it's real, it's here and we have to deal with it. I can't keep crying about it and apologising for it.

“We've been here before, we know what we have to do and that is get ourselves a manager to restore some hope and expectation for next season.”