MK Dons manager Karl Robinson spoke to his club's official website after his side's 1-0 League One defeat against Carlisle at stadium:mk, Robinson saying the home side missed numerous chances early on in the game:
“The way we set the team up for the first 25 minutes we were the better team. Stupid missed chances, Daniel Powell missed two or three gilt-edged chances when we were on top, Darren Potter missed one, there were three or four things. Then a bolt out of the blue and then people started doing their own thing.
“The second-half was appalling, it was slow, we played across the back too slowly, it was too methodical, we didn’t move the opposition enough, we didn’t play between the lines quickly enough. Maybe I got it wrong with the squad, I thought they could have stepped in and done a better job.
“You can’t miss, Dave Martin, Antony Kay, Shaun Williams, Stephen Gleeson and Dean Bowditch, you can’t miss these people. They are too influential, they are too good a player at this level of football and tonight it has shown. Simple as that, some of them never stood up to the plate, and that is not hanging them out to dry because maybe I made a mistake making the substitutions, so I have got to take responsibility for that as well.
“I thought going three at the back and two strikers upfront would have made us a bit more of a threat to occupy their two centre-halves with our two wing-backs being offensive types. But, that didn’t work and we reverted back to 4-4-2 very quickly, and once we went to 4-4-2 we looked very predictable and very boring and very one-paced, that 45 minutes is not acceptable.
“By the looks of the way Carlisle played they came here to get a draw. You can’t knock them, they have come here and played a certain way and got the result, so you have got to accept that. I will take responsibility for part of some of that game for obvious reasons, but we have all got to stand up and be counted."
“They have got to respond now and over the forthcoming games they know that those performances levels won’t win them games. The first 25 minutes maybe but when you are on top in a game you have got to take your chances and we didn’t.
“Patrick Bamford is another one who maybe shouldn’t have played, he has had a hamstring problem all week but he wanted to play, he felt he was fit enough to play. But, maybe he wasn’t as fit as he first thought so he was only 60-70% today, so you felt for the boy for those reasons. But, you could come up with all the excuses in the world, we got beat, simple as that.
“It was disappointing for a large part of the game but over the first 25 minutes that is what I expect. The intensity, the quickness and movement of the ball, getting between the lines, spreading the play, giving us width. Then for some unknown reason, the last 20 minutes of the first-half we denied our own space, people came beyond their back lines to get the ball and we weren’t breaking anybody down.
“There is a disjointed feel with all the injuries but they train together every day and they proved in the first 25 minutes that that can’t be an excuse. We looked naïve at times and young players have to understand the way the game is going. You have got to move the ball quicker, the pitch was set up to move the ball quick, but then I had people playing passes from five yards and almost shooting it at our own players.
“The game appreciation wasn’t good enough and they know that and this isn’t something internally that they don’t know, they hurt for obvious reasons, we are disappointed because we have been beaten at home. The only way we can put it right is by winning on Saturday, but it has been a difficult time, a really difficult 48 hours, we can’t compete with the players we have got out, it is impossible.”