Performances and players are letting Manning down, says Dons midfielder

Bradley Johnson has backed boss Liam Manning after MK Dons’ dismal start to the season.

Dons sit 22nd in League One after a seventh defeat of the season on Saturday, losing 2-1 away at Shrewsbury Town.

Johnson, who joined the club in summer from Championship side Blackburn Rovers, said Manning, who took the club to third place last season, is one of the best he has worked with during his lenghty career, but felt the players have so far let him down this season.

“He was one of the main reasons I signed for the club,” Johnson said. “The presentation both he and Liam Sweeting put to me was detailed of how they want to run the club and want to play. I'm enjoying it, we're in a sticky moment and we're leaning on each other as much as we can but it's a credit to him and his staff who work so tirelessly.

“We're letting them and the fans down at the moment. I've had a lot of managers, and he is very, very good in everything he does.

“The staff give us everything. The boy are lucky with the management team here - I've never had backroom staff so committed and so details before every game. We've got to do it on the pitch and we haven't been lately.”

The 35-year-old has become a leading voice in the dressing room since arriving in the summer, but he admitted the talking about Dons’ potential has to stop now, with proof of it being all the more important.

He said: “It's time now - we're not three or four games in. We've got to start putting it right. But we're confident we can turn it around.

“We're all frustrated with the way we've performed of late, and throughout the season. We've shown spells of being able to do it, and then in the first half on Saturday, we showed we're not at it and it is costing us at the moment.

“The ability is there, we're all trying to keep confidence up ahead of the next game.

“But we have to stop talking and put it right on the pitch.”