Edwards shoulders the blame after Dons knock Watford out of the Cup

Watford boss Rob Edwards took full responsibility for his side’s lacklustre showing on Tuesday night as they went crashing out of the Carabao Cup to MK Dons.

While both head coaches made big changes to their sides - Liam Manning made seven alterations to his side while Edwards made six from their league fixtures three days prior - goals from Matt Dennis and Darragh Burns made it a comfortable win for Dons as they booked their spot in the third round draw.

“I'm disappointed, and frustrated,” said Edwards afterwards. “I was disappointed with the performance and the result. I felt the team I put out there could have won the game, and I take full responsibility for that. We weren't good enough tonight.

“We could have taken more risks, a few more forward runs to ask more questions. We don't want to feel like that again. We have to make sure we're better on Saturday.

“I made a number of changes which I was confident and comfortable with but we couldn't find out rhythm, and when you're not good enough with the ball or out of possession, it's not a good recipe. In a nutshell, that's what went wrong.

“We'll go through it with the players, and there will be a lot of things we can learn from this both individually and as a group as well.”