Dons boss Neal Ardley admits his side doesn’t deserve to be in the play-offs after surrendering five out of the last six points.
The AFC chief finally threw in the thin towel of escaping League Two when his side were roundly beaten 4-0 by lowly Dagenham & Redbridge that also produced a hat-trick for 39-year-old Jamie Cureton.
Ardley blamed the all-important second Dagenham goal, a set piece from a corner that proved the team’s Achilles heel for the second week in a row.
Dons led 2-0 against Northampton last week only to be hauled back to 2-2.
And when AFC were out-jumped from a corner at back post against Daggers – it was uphill with the brake on.
Even so, the manager put out a team hell-bent on attack thwarted at every turn as they chased an early setback when Daggers scored in the second minute.
Ardley said: “How we haven’t come in three or four up at half time - I don’t know.
“For the second week in a row, you’re relying on players to do their job from set pieces, and one man gets out-jumped at the far post and it’s 2-0.
“You’re still in with a chance because you’ve got so much firepower, but you leave yourself open and we conceded a third and we folded.
"They had a 39-year-old striker on the pitch who took three of their six chances. He punished us. I decided to go all out attack, and for the first hour it looked a good idea.
“The second goal kills you. It’s a set piece and we work on them every day.
“You very rarely get a 4-0 scoreline where a side dominates from start to finish, and this was one of those where we made wrong choices trying to chase the game.
“It’s all about the boxes in League Two, and we didn’t take our chances and don’t deserve to be in the play-offs because of this and last week against Northampton.”
