Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence mirrored the feeling of most who watched on Saturday as his team wasted chance after chance.
New signing Josh Walker bundled an effort over the line in the last minute but by then the Gills were already two goals down in a game where the best of the chances had fallen to his team.
Report: MK Dons 2 Gillingham 1
Creating chances wasn’t a problem for the Gills – and Clemence was delighted with how his team worked the better openings than possession-obsessed MK Dons – but the same old problem made for an unhappy ending.
“I felt we should have won the game,” he said.
“We’ve played really well, and I can accept that sort of performance all day long from the players. I can’t accept last week against Forest Green but I can accept coming to probably the in-form team in the league where I felt we had the best chances, but unfortunately, we haven’t taken those chances.
“I felt (while watching) in the technical area that we’ve just got to take one of those moments, not just one, two or three of them.
“I was really proud of large parts of the play with the boys because we had to work really hard on how we were going to try and stop MK Dons and then how we were going to counter on them and have an affect on the game, and they did so much of that really well, it is just that final bit.
“I am pleased with some parts of it but just disappointed not to get a result. I want to win.”
The Gills went close through Connor Mahoney – who should have scored after five minutes – and Oli Hawkins who was denied by a good save. A flurry of chances in the second half came and went.
MK Dons then responded through MJ Williams with an opener and Alex Gilbey adding a second. Walker got one back on 90 minutes – after a lively performance off the bench – and Macauley Bonne had a chance to level but headed onto the bar as the hosts took the points.
The Gills finished the day ninth in League 2 – two points off the play-off places. It’s their first defeat in five after a run of three wins followed by last week’s frustrating draw to bottom side Forest Green.
Clemence added: “We have played some good stuff for a number of weeks but the only thing that matters to me is winning football matches.
“We have lost the game but I felt that we deserved to win it, to not even get a draw I am very disappointed and the lads did deserve something.
“We got beat from a second phase off a corner (for the first goal) and we also got done on a counter-attack from our own goal-kick (for the second).
“They didn’t cut us open all day long. I do study the opposition before I play them, of course, I had watched five or six games and recently they’ve been going through teams like butter they didn’t do that to us.
“There was a lot to be happy with but I don’t feel happy now, I feel disappointed.”
