"They've been away for so long I would have liked them to pick the lads up when it's not going so well. I'm glad they are back in. I wish they were a little more vocal.

"Even with 2,000 I expected it to be non-stop singing and pushing them. It was very, very quiet apart from some negative shouting. But I get that the players didn't do very much to get them on their feet."

On the performance, Bowyer added: "They looked sharper than us. That's something we'll have to discuss and I just discussed it in the changing room. They played Sunday and we played Saturday – so that made no sense to me.

"We could have gone top two. Being at home, everyone would be expecting us to win. But they aren't a bad side. They take risks but if they beat the press they can hurt you up top."

By contrast, MK Dons manager Russell Martin declared the win as his side's best performance of the season so far.

Fraser was the standout performer throughout, but Martin believes there were 11 man-of-the-match candidates on his team as the Dons moved further away from the wrong end of the table with a big win over promotion-chasing opposition.

"It was outstanding," he said. "We've had a lot of really good performances but to do it away from home against a team with their firepower and the bench they had was amazing.

"We created a lot and we never looked uncomfortable. If I was to single players out we would be here a long time because there were so many great individual performances.

"I'm getting a bit emotional about the performance. I'm so proud of the boys.

"I think the way we started the game with such intensity is a beautiful thing with this group of players.

"The bottom line is we are becoming difficult to play against. We've lost one in seven and this is what we can do when we work relentlessly and help each other out.

"When that happens and they really believe in something like we do, they get the results they deserve and we can build something. We have to keep building now, and performances like that will do that."