Swindon first-team coach Tommy Wright launched a scathing attack on his players after their 4-1 defeat to MK Dons.

Cameron Jerome’s brace helped the visitors take apart a lacklustre Swindon side and Wright, assistant to manager John Sheridan, warned his players they will be without a job if performances do not improve.

Wright said: “We were second best; we were poor on the ball and we didn’t compete.

“They ran more than us, they controlled the ball better than us and passed better than us.

“They need to wake up. Football’s brutal and they won’t be here – and who’s going to take them?

“They’ve trained quite well this week but if you don’t go out there and compete then you’re in trouble and we found that in the first half because it just wasn’t acceptable.

“Football is not a difficult game if you play it properly. We had no desire and no quality.”

Jerome opened the scoring after only four minutes when he tapped in after Ben Gladwin’s initial effort was blocked.

A wonderful passing move involving Regan Poole, Gladwin and Scott Fraser led to Daniel Harvie making it 2-0 as he dinked the ball over the onrushing Matej Kovar in the 28th minute.

Swindon had barely threatened until Jack Payne rifled in off the bar from 30 yards after 38 minutes but in the blink of an eye, MK Dons restored their two-goal cushion through Jerome’s second.

Poole got in on the act 12 minutes from time with a close-range header from Harvie’s cross to compound the misery of the home side, who also had Rob Hunt sent off in the 84th minute.

MK Dons manager Russell Martin insists he is looking up the table and not down it after his side won successive League One games for the first time this season.

He said: “I’m really pleased with the win and the stuff we saw.

“We have to keep putting points on the board because we have not got enough or maybe got the number of points our performances have deserved.

“It is back-to-back wins, which is really important because it is the first time we have done that this season.

“That has been a real frustration and now we have to build on this. We spoke with the players about how important this period is.

“It is an opportunity to put a bit of distance between us and the teams at the bottom.

“We need to look onwards and upwards and the next job is to win the next game and keep clawing at the teams above us.”