Former Dons keeper Ben Wilson was “bang out of order” for his Twitter spat with fans and he had to go, boss Neal Ardley has admitted.

However, the finger of blame was not pointed solely at Wilson, whose loan spell from Cardiff City came to an end after his clanger cost the Dons all the points against Stevenage in December.

After the game, fans went to Twitter to berate the 23-year-old’s form, to which Wilson responded: “You’re still paying to watch every week and helping towards my wage, I’m laughing and you’re losing out”.

Ardley acknowledged that Wilson had been provoked into the retort and while fans were wrong to pick on the keeper, he said the club could not ignore the spat.

He said: “What we cannot do as a club is stand by that sort of thing going on and we’d come to a point where there was no option but to send him back.

“Fans can do and say what they want to players, but players have got to do things the right way and part of being a footballer is unfortunately taking what comes your way.

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“Ben was bang out of order and the club did the right thing and that is stand by the fans, no matter how wrong the fans have been in the first place.”

He added: “The players get training from the FA on social media at the start of the season.

“They get warned over how things can go in a different direction if they are not careful, but I think it was a stupid episode, and hopefully everyone has learnt from it.

“I don’t go on social media because I can imagine what would be said to me every time we lost a game.”

Ardley also admitted that Wilson’s dire form meant his days in a Dons shirt were numbered even before the social media furore.

The keeper, brought in to fill in for the injured James Shea, made nine appearances conceding 10 goals, including a mistake against Forest Green Rovers that cost the Dons their place in the FA Cup.

“Ben had got to the point as a player where he did not deserve his place in the team,” Ardley said.

“He had made far too many errors on the pitch and you always try to stick by people, but there comes a point when players behind them are asking ‘How many chances is he going to get before I get my chance’ – and we’d come to a point where that was the case.”