Dons chairman Pete Winkelman refused to allow manager Karl Robinson to talk to the media after skipper Dean Lewington became the fourth Dons player to be sent off in as many games at Swindon yesterday.
The owner made the highly unusual step of speaking to the press himself after the captain added to the red cards picked up by Stephen Gleeson, Antony Kay and Alan Smith.
Mr Winkelman expressed fears that refereeing decisions could wreck this make or break season and said he could barely believe how the opening four matches of the campaign had panned out.
Here is his statement in full:
"I didn't want my football people coming out to speak today.
"It's an unusual decision, but a decision after an unprecedented start to the season for us which has hugely disappointed me, and it's really why I'm here to face you all myself today.
"First of all, I want to say congratulations to Swindon Town, I thought they were the better team today.
"I think they looked terrific coming into the ground today, lot's of people, great vibe down here and I congratulate them with the way they are moving their club forward.
"From our point of view we have suffered another sending off today, it's something that I can't really believe.
"We're one of the best football playing teams in the whole of the Football League. Many press comments over the last couple of years, especially since we've had Karl Robinson as our manager, have pointed that out.
"We're not a dirty team, we don't play to get people sent off, we don't play to hurt anybody, we try to play the better football.
"Sometimes it doesn't come off, we've just seen a day today when it hasn't come off.
"But at the same time, we've tried very hard to make sure that we've been able to look at what's going on, we've had meetings with the referees this week.
"Karl's brought them in, we've gone through matches, we've analysed things. We want to know exactly where we are going wrong.
"But once again we saw a sending off which was apparently an elbow from Dean Lewington who had picked up the ball after a free-kick had been awarded.
"What really frustrates me is I've seen the video of that, and the referee doesn't have the opportunity to watch the game back so you know, you can only take this with a pinch of salt, but actually, it wasn't even a free-kick.
"Lewington's held the ball and the Swindon player has come to get the ball back off him, like we see happen a million times in every game up and down the country.
"Except this time, the Swindon player has gone and grabbed Dean, actually around the throat, Dean has raised his elbow to take him away from it.
"Somehow, that has been interpreted as a sending off, and I can't tell you how much it changes the game.
"But it does, and you know, Swindon, who were really good today, especially in that first half, but they scored a goal when we were in a little bit of disarray having lost our captain who was playing centre back.
"So as I say, I've come to the end of a game, a game that we've lost, with huge disappointment, huge frustration, and actually, as you can probably tell, pretty upset about it.
"I've gone back over all of the sendings off and there's only one sending off which I think is absolutely a sending off and that came after a player we were playing against had broken this particular player's nose.
"The referee again hadn't given a free-kick and so the player has taken that into his own hands.
"We accept that, hands up, that's a sending off. Although it should have been a free-kick first.
"These other sendings off, I just don't get it, and I don't understand it, and it is really having an affect on our season.
"This is a big season for the MK Dons. We're finishing our stadium, the stadium that everybody said first we wouldn't build, then they said we would never complete, but of course, like every promise that I've made we have got there.
"It's a season when we will be finishing the stadium and a season that I'd like to finish high in this league.
"I think we've got one of the best teams, certainly the best squad of players that we've ever assembled at the club.
"They have promotion as their ambition and I think that unless we get some reasonable consistency in refereeing decisions, then I'm worried that it won't be our season and that would be a hell of a disappointment to me. Thank you."
