I picked the wrong team – MK Dons boss Russell Martin takes blame for Wigan loss
Posted Sunday, March 07, 2021 by PA
MK Dons manager Russell Martin held up his hands and accepted full responsibility for his side’s 3-0 defeat at Sky Bet League One strugglers Wigan.
The visitors were second best for the opening half-an-hour, leading Martin to make an early double substitution to try to break Wigan’s stranglehold.
On-loan Feyenoord defender George Johnston had already headed Wigan in front after 23 minutes.
And, although the Dons enjoyed a decent half-hour either side of the interval, goals from Callum Lang and Joe Dodoo gave Wigan a much-needed victory.
“It’s my fault, I picked the wrong team from the start,” admitted Martin.
“I picked players who hadn’t trained enough, and that meant we weren’t able to compete enough in the first half-an-hour.
“I take full responsibility for that, because there was some really good stuff in that, which is obviously tainted by the scoreline and not being able to defend our box properly.
“We had a warning sign early on, which was nothing to do with style of play, before they scored.
“After that we make the changes, and look really good, we’re camped in their half for 15 minutes either side of half-time.
“It’s very difficult playing against loads of bodies camped behind the ball, but we didn’t make enough of wave after wave of attacking.
“They’ve thrown bodies in the way, we’ve hit the woodwork twice, and then we concede a second goal to a guy who is free in our box.
“Then we’re chasing the game, but they’ve got the wind in their sails, they’re on the front foot and we end up giving a third goal away.
“It’s not good enough, we’re conceding far too many goals, especially from crosses, and we have to sort that out and show a bit of character.”
The visitors hit the bar in either half through Harry Darling and Ryan Fraser, but could have few arguments with the result, which boosted Wigan’s survival hopes.
“It’s a great result for the lads and reward for how well they worked out of possession,” said Wigan boss Leam Richardson, whose side are now only a point adrift of safety.
“MK Dons ask you all sorts of questions all around the pitch, everyone to a man does their job, and they can cause you problems.
“But we stuck to our task today and we thoroughly deserved to win 3-0.
“It was important we had certain lads on the pitch whose concentration levels were high and strong to defend, and then in turnover of possession it was important we had pace and the athleticism to go and hurt them in behind.
“I thought we did that very well in the first half, deserved our lead, and then got the goals to see it through in the second half.
“Leading up to half-time they obviously changed their shape and our lads had to adjust.
“We did that at half-time and I thought we comfortably won the game in the end.”
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