Graham Alexander questioned the “resilience” of his misfiring MK Dons players and their desire to improve after their winless run hit eight Sky Bet League Two matches with a dramatic 2-2 draw against Barrow.
Emile Acquah’s stunning late leveller salvaged a point for the visitors at Stadium MK as the hosts threw away a 2-0 lead in stoppage time.
Max Dean’s first-half double looked to have set the Dons on the way to their first league win since August, but after substitute Ben Whitfield’s strike teed up a nervy finale, Acquah curled home to extend their rotten run and trigger loud boos at full-time.
Former Scotland international Alexander, 52, said: “It should be three points in the bag without a shadow of a doubt.
“But we have unbelievable ways of shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re making basic errors of judgement and bringing it on ourselves.
“The game should be done. We’ve have opportunities to see the game out and we’re not making good decisions.
“And then at 2-1, it’s a blind panic. I’m not going to lie, after the first one I could see it coming.
“It’s not a bunch of kids who have never played football before, it’s lads who have played 300 or 400 games.
“We have an issue in our heads, we should know exactly how to see this out. We can’t win a game of football that we should have won and we have to eradicate it.
“It’s not in the whole team. I can see the ones who can take on instructions and tactics and make decisions at the right time.
“And I can forgive young players who are 18, 19 or 20 for making mistakes in the game.
“I can see the ones that are not showing the improvement and resilience to improve our results. That’s the cold fact.”
The Dons seized the lead when Dean rifled home on the turn from the edge of the box via a slight deflection.
But Barrow rallied and could have grabbed a leveller as Robbie Gotts, Dean Campbell and Ged Garner all went close.
Dean punished their profligacy when he doubled the home side’s advantage 10 minutes before the break by reacting quickest to Paul Farman’s reaction stop to nod home from close range.
The Dons wasted multiple chances to put the game to bed in the second half before Whitfield and Acquah’s late intervention rescued Barrow a point.
Beaming Barrow boss Pete Wild said: “I honestly think that’s the least we deserve, we’ve had some really good passages of play.
“We passed the football like we had belief, but just didn’t hurt them enough in their box.
“Those two late goals are brilliant and the least we deserved.
“Emile has a really good finish about him and finished that really well.
“We dominated the football really well, but have still got work to do in both boxes.”
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