AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley pulled no punches and slammed his players after a 1-0 defeat at bottom of the table Hartlepool.

A late Ryan Bird goal sealed the points for the relegation fighters, who remain bottom of League Two, while Dons dropped to 11th.

Ardley made four changes to the side that drew 0-0 at Cambridge United on Tuesday night with Craig Tanner, Sean Rigg, Dannie Bulman and Callum Kennedy coming in for Adebayo Azeez, Tom Beere, Sammy Moore and Jack Smith.

The changes did not produce any goals, and Dons have only scored five goals in the past six games.

Ardley said: “I’m very angry, I’m very disappointed. We’ve been on really good form of late and [against Hartlepool] we were poor.

“We didn’t have enough energy, enough intensity, we didn’t play with enough movement, enough penetration, enough energy.

“I’ve got good competition for places and the people that had the shirt haven’t done it and because of that we’ve looked ordinary.

“We looked good against Cambridge, but against Hartlepool we looked ordinary. We lost too many of the battles and we did not manage the game, the pitch or the wind.

“They were never going to play pretty at home, they were digging in looking to pick up something and we’ve given them a rubbish goal.”

He added: “We gave the players everything they needed for this game, we’ve worked our socks off to give them the right preparation and freshen them up.

“We picked an attacking team, everyone know their jobs but the players have not turned up today.

“I can only apologise to the fans who made the journey because that was not good enough.”