MK Dons boss Scott Lindsey has defended his team after ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ chants from fans following their FA Cup defeat by arch-rivals AFC Wimbledon.
The Dons conceded twice, either side of half-time, and could not manage a reply as they went down 2-0.
It was their second defeat of the season by Wimbledon, having lost 3-0 at Plough Lane in September, prior to Lindsey’s appointment.
“I want the fans to come for me, not the players. I don’t want to hear that because they are fit to wear the shirt – they just won three league games on the bounce,” he told BBC Three Counties Radio.
“I think of the last 10 games, we’ve won five, that’s a 50% win ratio, so they are fit to wear the shirt – please don’t say that, don’t sing that.
“The players are working extremely hard and we will get it right, we just need to all be connected and recognise that we can only get to where we want to get to if we’re all together.”
Lindsey led Crawley to promotion from League Two last season, beating the Dons 8-1 on aggregate on their way to winning the play-offs.
But he opted to drop back down a division to move to Stadium: MK and earlier this month described the Dons as “the biggest club in the division”.
The disappointment of defeat by Wimbledon was compounded by the second-half sending-off of Connor Lemonheigh-Evans – and Lindsey was unhappy with the defending for both goals.
He said: “They’re very good at what they do, they were good at the dark arts of the game. They took their time after they were 2-0 up and the referee kind of allowed that to happen.
“We’re League Two, we’re going to (have to) defend against direct balls every game and if we can’t do that better, we’re not going to get to where we need to get to.
“It’s my fault, I need to do more work with them.”
Lindsey will be hoping for an immediate response from his players when they return to league action at home to his former club Swindon Town on Saturday.
He added: “The boys have done fantastic since I’ve been here and we’ve got to stay with them.”