The 'same story' for Martin as Dons' troubles on the road continue

Russell Martin was furious with his defence after Sullay Kaikai was left unmarked to score the only goal of the game in Blackpool's 1-0 win over MK Dons on Saturday.

The Blackpool man swept past Andrew Fisher in the Dons net in one of only a handful of chances for either side in a game short on entertainment at Bloomfield Road.

Still the scene of Dons' last away victory in League One back in September 2019, Martin was left to rue another defensive error costing his side as they dropped to 23rd in the table.

"It's been the same as every away game we've had this season," he said. "I'm fed up with coming out here and saying we limited teams to two shots, but they win 1-0. We have to accept there are some games where we can't be fluid and creative. But if we give them nothing, the minimum we should get is a point.

"At 0-0, we had control without creating anything. They tried to catch us on the counter which didn't happen, but they didn't do it once.

"And then we didn't mark for the goal. That's something we work on religiously and we didn't do it. I'm sorry I'm being short, but that's the fact."

It is now 18 games on the road for Dons since that last away win in the league, and Martin is yet to pick up three points on the road since he took over as manager.

When asked what his side need to do differently, he said: "I don't know. We'll have to go and look at it. We didn't create enough but when you come away from home against a side who like to have a lot of the ball and we stop them from doing that, I don't know what more we can do.

"We have to work harder at the top end of the pitch. We did so much work defensively and it wasn't carried out. We can pick faults in any performance but there are key factors impacting us."