Lewis Bate gave a speech following MK Dons’ 1-0 loss to Grimsby Town.
Lewis Bate of MK Dons says that following their Tuesday night loss to Grimsby Town, the team now has eight cup finals to win in order to secure promotion.
Dons lost at Blundell Park by a goal on the odd, as Justin Obikwu scored from close range on the 33rd minute. Since Stockport County doesn’t play until Thursday, the team lost the opportunity to move up into the top three.
Leaders Mansfield lost 2-1 to Tranmere while Dons were losing to Grimsby, and Wrexham and Harrogate shared the points in a 0-0 draw. Crewe defeated Sutton 1-0 to move up into fourth place, ahead of Mike Williamson’s team, and will take on Dons on Saturday.
Bate said the Dons need to win every one of their eight remaining games, three of which are against teams that are in front of them.
“We’ve got eight games left, eight cup finals and we have to win all of them,” he stated. They’re being bailed out because they didn’t perform well tonight. But we have to concentrate on ourselves and no one else.
“We now need the three points at the weekend, and then we have to go and beat the Stockports and Mansfields to take the points off them.”
With just one shot on goal all evening in Lincolnshire, head coach Williamson claimed that the Dons’ play in the final third against Grimsby fell well short of their own expectations.
Repeating what he had said, Bate acknowledged that the players were depressed following the defeat, saying, “We’re down, we wanted to win the game and it hasn’t happened tonight.”
It’s challenging to accept. We ought to be winning games like these as the season comes to a close. Our upcoming games are challenging, and we simply weren’t good enough for a team that was vying for promotion.
Although there are no simple games in the league, we had trouble dismantling Grimsby. I think we have the best football team in the league, and we need to figure out how to beat these teams. This is very disappointing because there aren’t many games left.
“I don’t think there were enough people forward, and I’m not sure if I contributed enough or if I could have done more. Again, not good enough, I believe we only had one shot on target. We had a great start to the second half and really pushed them, but we were unable to score.”
