Dons skipper reluctant to blame the officials after 'silly, silly' mistakes

Marcus Browne cancelled out Conor McCarthy’s header in the first half but Dons were fuming after Cameron McGeehan restored Town’s lead five minutes into the second half, claiming the midfielder was offside.

The goal stood though and McGeehan added a second eight minutes later as Cobblers took all three points to leap above Wimbledon in the League One.

“Three set-pieces and no first contact,” bemoaned Reeves. “On the first one, we lose a man. Second and third are strange for us to concede that type of floaty chip to the middle of the area and then not get anything on it. It's highly disappointing.

“I don't know if the second one is offside. If it is, it is. It is what it is. You don't give anyone the opportunity to get that decision wrong. If it's an unbelievable bit of quality from across and a header, sometimes you go, ‘fair enough,’ but they’re strange goals.

“It shouldn't get to that point where it's offside and then you're clinging on to hoping that the referee calls it offside – it should never have got there anyway.”

Wimbledon responded well to the early setback and could have found themselves ahead by half-time.

Reeves added: “I always think there's going to be times where you concede first. We're, as a team, quite good at staying calm, sticking to the plan again and we just get going again, which we did.

“We got back in it. We had a couple of chances as well after that so there's definitely positives to take there. Late on, we're pushing and young Junior (Nkeng) has come on and we're getting them into positions that favour him, one-v-ones, he's causing carnage out there.

“The lad (Northampton’s wing-back) has done okay against him, but you can't leave it late like that. You can't concede three goals at this level and expect to come out with anything. Another day, maybe we get one back and then who knows, but the goals, if you take them away, realistically, what did they have?

“You're playing away from home on Friday night under lights, the team's never going to come out second half and just let you do what you want. They made it a little bit scrappy, which normally we're quite good at coping with and seeing out.

“It's hard for you to then get your foot back on the ball, as it is for everyone, because the rhythm is completely changed. Silly, silly, silly, schoolboy fouls constantly.

“What are they going to do? That's their game. They want to load it in your box, they're going to load it in your box and they're good at it. That is definitely something that needs to be addressed in terms of not giving away those cheap opportunities to put the ball in our box.”