Dons were ‘worse than last year’ but were comfortable in victory says Artell

Last season’s 2-0 defeat against Crewe Alexandra was the benchmark for bad performances from an MK Dons perspective. This season, Railwaymen boss David Artell said they were even worse but ended up cruising to a 4-1 victory thanks to his side’s performance.

The home side’s performance, certainly for the first hour, gave the home fans hope they could pick up only their second victory of the season and get them off the foot of the League One table, especially when Chris Long cancelled out Mo Eisa’s first half opener.

But Matt O’Riley made it 2-1 on 64 minutes, Eisa then missed a penalty three minutes later before Peter Kioso’s strike was deflected in off Donervon Daniels and Max Watters struck a fourth for Dons in stoppage time.

Artell took his time coming out to speak to the media afterwards, saying he had more than a few stern words to say to his side.

“I told the players a few home truths, I told a few people where they’re at and told them it’s unacceptable,” he said afterwards.

“I don’t want to say too much because a lot of answers have to stay internal, but I’ve just said to them there’s no magic wand: there’s hard work and belief. There’s got to be resilience, and at the moment there’s an acceptance that ‘that’ll do’ and that has got to change.

“I think MK Dons were worse than they were last year and they’ve beaten us comfortably, and they haven’t had to work that hard either. That shows how far off we are where we were last year.

“The players have to understand they have to do better, not make the silly mistakes they made. They have a sense of inevitability in their minds that it will happen. That’s psychology, not football ability. Only the players can change that.

“We got ourselves back into the game but shot ourselves in the foot not once but three times, and with the penalty as well. We can’t accept that. The supporters have every right not to be happy with that performance.”