Swindon coach blasts his players after dismal Dons display

A furious Tommy Wright criticised the Swindon Town players for their first half performance in the 4-1 beating at the hands of MK Dons on Tuesday night.

Dons took a 3-1 lead into the interval, having taken the lead after just four minutes through Cameron Jerome. Daniel Harvie added an excellent second before Jack Payne's stunner pulled one back for the home side, though Jerome restored Dons' two-goal advantage five minutes before the break.

Never at the races, Swindon were made to chase for the majority of the first half and though they looked a better outfit in the second, assistant manager Wright felt the damage had been done in the first 45 minutes as Town slipped to 23rd in the table.

Asked whether Swindon, who were promoted from League Two last season, would go straight back down if they performed like they did in the first half again, Wright said: "Without a doubt. The players were told as much at half-time, we were second best, we were poor on the ball, we didn’t compete, they ran more than us, they controlled the ball better than us, they passed better than us. It’s as simple as that.”

“Some of our players need to wake up in there because football is brutal. They won’t be here, and who’s going to take them?

“They can be whatever they think they are, but they’re delusional. If they put in performances like that, they won’t be in football, never mind at Swindon.

"I can’t account for why they started so slowly. They’ve trained quite well this week, obviously, it’s been difficult with the weather, but that’s no excuse.

“They’re decent footballers on their day, but if you don’t compete, you don’t have the desire to run about and you don’t take care of that white thing, you’re in trouble.

“We found that out in the first half, because it just wasn’t acceptable.”