Karl Robinson says comments made by Stevenage manager in newspaper column are ‘disrespectful’

MK Dons manager Karl Robinson has hit back at criticism of him from Graham Westley, accusing the Stevenage boss of ‘being disrespectful’.

Westley, in a newspaper column on Sunday, took issue with Robinson’s comments following last Tuesday’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, which Boro won 2-1.

Writing in the Football League paper, Westley said: “Karl Robinson let himself down on Tuesday night after my Stevenage side played well to beat his MK Dons team.

“He described his team’s performance as a ‘shambles’, ‘embarrassing’ and a ‘waste of 45 minutes of my life’.

“He described their display as ‘playing their [Stevenage’s] way’

“Well I take issue with Karl. My lads worked very hard. They put MK Dons under relentless pressure with and without the ball.”

Responding, Robinson told the MK Sport website: “I believe it’s very tarnishing and disrespectful. I was very respectful to Stevenage, I had a go at my team. I called my team a shambles on the day.

“I said they reverted to playing their style. Their style is their style, that works for them. I’m not going to criticise their style, but we can’t play the way they play.

“Everything he said about my team is my own words, that they should have won by more. I’ve obviously hit a spark. I’ve got no problem with Stevenage, I think it’s a wonderful football club which is run very, very well.”

Robinson also responded to Westley’s comments that he ‘gets a lot of praise for someone who has fallen short of his targets so far’.

“A fellow manager told me the other week just how good finances were at MK. Karl would do well to stop trying to take cheap shots and trying to belittle a fellow manager’s team,” Westley had written.

Robinson’s response? “He talks about budgets. My daughter reads a lot of fiction books at school and that’s certainly fiction. We know the truth, we know where we are financially. We know we’ve constantly finished above our budget every year.”