Second-half slumps are happening too often, admits Dons skipper

Alex Gilbey has blasted MK Dons’ second-half performances recently after they threw away a lead to lost 3-1 to Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.

It was night and day between the performances from half-to-half at Mornflake Stadium for Graham Alexander’s side and Crewe’s too. While Dons looked head-and-shoulders above the home side, the roles dramatically reversed in the second-half. Jonathan Leko’s early opening goal was cancelled out by Conor Thomas before strikes from Courtney Baker-Richardson and Chris Long completed the win for Lee Bell’s side.

It was not the first time Dons had ‘Jeykll and Hyde’ performances this season. The wins over Tranmere and Doncaster followed a similar pattern, while they managed to gloss over an otherwise so-so second-half showing with two late goals to go on and win at Colchester.

Skipper Gilbey said: “This isn't the first time this has happened, it has happened three times now. It's something we have to change ASAP and get to the bottom of.

“I don't know whether we get bored, or get complacent but we've got to see off teams when we've got them like that.

“The opposition will always make tweaks at half-time, but we cannot rely on the manager or Chris to spoon-feed us information. We've got 11 men out there who see things as footballers, and we have to do something out on the pitch.

“It's a cliche but we have to go back to the drawing board, it's not acceptable.

“We've all done sloppy things to give goals away, but as a collective we all have to address those second-half performances because it's not good enough.”

Such was the swing in Dons’ performance at Gresty Road, Gilbey felt their performance in first-half was as good as they have looked this season.

He added: “We started really well, and for the first 25 minutes, it was the best we've looked all season. We were getting the ball down, playing our football but also turning them.

“We were good, we mixed it up, we had Jonathan and Ash running in behind, but I don't know what happened.”