Individual errors prove costly for Dons but Manning won’t point fingers

There will be no blame laid at the doors of those who made mistakes which directly led to goals in the defeat to Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.

Of the four the Pilgrims stuck past Dons at Stadium MK, three came as a result of individual errors from Liam Manning’s men.

The first came from relatively nowhere - a Morgan Whittaker daisy-cutter from the edge of the box which looked bread and butter for keeper Jamie Cumming, but the Chelsea loanee somehow let it slip through his hands and over the line just nine minutes in.

While there was little Dons could do about Argyle’s well-worked second, courtesy of Niall Ennis, Josh McEachran’s ball around the corner was straight to Finn Azaz who found the bottom corner to make it 3-0 before half-time.

Dons threatened to get back in it with a bright start to the second half when Will Grigg was slid in by Louie Barry, but the Aston Villa loanee then himself gifted it to Villa team-mate Azaz to bend in his second and Plymouth’s fourth on the hour mark.

Having praised Jamie Cumming in the week for his recent performances, Manning said none of those who made mistakes would be singled out.

“We can support them, we can sit down and analyse and look at why it happens,” he said. “Mistakes happen in every game, people give the ball away or make a mistake at some point. But we can't repeat the same mistakes, if you're learning you won't do it.

“We'll sit and work with them, and challenge the players to do better.”

He continued: “Jamie has been outstanding for us, and he'll bounce back from that, I know he will because of the character he is.

“You can go through numerous games where he has kept us in it, reduced it or won us games. We won't be looking too much at that one.

“Louie is extremely young and will learn bundles from the game today. He did so many positive things, and ultimately we don't need to talk about the mistake because he knows.

“There is a lot to take from the positions he took up, the way he turned in between the lines, drove forwards. He did some terrific things today.”