Neal Ardley has warned his AFC Wimbledon back four that they cannot afford to make as many mistakes now they are playing at a higher level.
The Dons have conceded three goals in each of their opening two games, at Walsall on Saturday and Peterborough in the EFL Cup last night.
And while Ardley was pleased overall with both performances, he impressed the need on his defenders to cut out the errors.
He said: “I thought we played really well on Saturday and I thought we were really good again tonight. We're just really frustrated as we've switched off at two set pieces, which lost us the game.
“I said to the players you live your lives right, you work hard, you're fit you're strong, you've got an unbelievable attitude and your togetherness is frightening, but you've thrown it all away in three moments of stuff where you should be able to stand strong.
“It was something we did poorly last season, and as soon as we got it right we went on a run and got promotion, so we've got to liven up sooner rather than later.
“They're goals that can be stopped, there's little things we know we can do better. We're just finding that with good players at this level, we're getting punished more. It's frustrating, but we will keep working on not giving away goals.”
The Dons are at least scoring goals at the other end too, but Ardley denied that following his attacking instincts is leaving his side exposed in other areas of the pitch.
He added: “We're very attacked minded and like to get at teams, playing two forwards in games, sometimes three, and we have a go – that's us.
“I wouldn't mind if you said we were a bit open, a bit kamikaze, and teams were slicing through us, but that's not what's happened.
“We've conceded three goals from set plays, and that's criminal really, and it's disappointing as I want to come in and say “brilliant, well played”, and instead I'm talking about the fact we've lost both games
“Every time we went forward we looked like we would score. We missed some unbelievable chances, the same as we did on Saturday.”
