Following another defeat for the Dons, Jimmy Thelin was forthright in his assessment of the problems facing his team.
“What we have to talk about now is responsibility. For me, in football, it’s not about how you play, or the system, or the way you want to play. It’s more about the basics. As an individual, to create a strong collective, you have to take some responsibility. How you run for each other, fighting in the 50-50 duels, and in some games right now, the opponents win everything. That’s not good enough to be in a team at this level.
“We have to look at ourselves in the mirror. Myself, my staff, the players. We have 1,800 people travelling here today to watch our team play and the way we lose the game is not good enough. It starts with responsibility. When you sign a contract for a football club, then you sign up for a responsibility, as a manager or a player. You have to give everything you have. That’s the starting point. You can’t go into a game and give away these 50-50 situations. You’re going to lose some. You’re going to win some. But you can’t lose every one. That’s the big problem for us right now.
“You have to go out on the pitch and give everything you have in every game. It’s a competition. You have to compete. Right now, when things are tough, you have to take one step forward instead of one step back. Otherwise, you give away these situations.
“How they score the goals today, for example. How much time they have to put in a cross. How we defend the set play. It’s similar in the other games to other goals we get against us right now. That just has to stop, otherwise, it’s impossible to compete.
“We have been in a really challenging time right now for a while, but in every away game, the supporters are there. They give everything they can to help us reach a higher standard as a team. They give everything they can. We have to give them more back in the games and be a much higher standard.
“We have high ambitions in this club. Really high ambitions. That will not change. We have to change if we are to reach this ambition we have as a club. I’m going to talk to my players and try to make them grow and be better. They know and we know that we can’t keep doing what we’re doing right now on the pitch.”
