Maguire points to Dons' mentality concerns after Notts County goals

The mood in MK Dons’ dressing room was the lowest Laurence Maguire has ever known it following their 3-0 defeat to Notts County on Wednesday night.

After holding the promotion-chasers in the first-half, with neither side really troubling the other in front of goal, it took David McGoldrick barely two second-half minutes to open the scoring with a screamer from the edge of the box.

As has been so often the case with Dons this season, a second followed swiftly, just seven minutes later, as Nick Tsaroulla caught Joe Tomlinson napping to rattle home, before Will Jarvis’ cracker with 16 minutes to go completed the rout.

Coming after a similar second-half no-show last Saturday against Fleetwood Town, Maguire

“I’ve never seen a dressing room like that afterwards,” said the defender. “It’s tough. We felt we were in the game at half-time and could get something.

“We go in at half-time, and we were upbeat. We’ve come to Notts County and we limited their chances, but we felt we could’ve had more moments in the second-half.

“It’s a mentality thing, to come out and concede straight away. The biggest disappointment for me is the second one. We cannot concede a goal like that and go 2-0 down quickly, because the game is away from us. We’re away at a very good team, and it’s hard to come back from. We’re always chasing the game.”

He continued: “To concede three goals like that is not good enough from us. Two of the goals are moments of magic, but that’s football. It’s a cruel game, but we cannot do that. When we concede one, we cannot keep conceding more straight afterwards. That’s the way it’s going at the moment.

“It hasn’t been the season we all wanted, but we’ve all got to stick together.”