Milton Keynes Dons have parted company with manager Liam Manning, with the club in the relegation zone in League One.

The Dons currently sit 23rd in the table and are six points from safety. Manning's final game in charge was the 2-1 defeat to Fleetwood Town at Stadium MK on Saturday, with the Cod Army turning the game around through Carl Johnson's equaliser and Dan Batty's late winner after Warren O'Hora had given the hosts the lead.

The defeat means that they have won just won of their last 11 games and have not won at home since August. With their position towards the bottom becoming increasingly precarious, the board have decided to act and announced in a statement that Manning had departed.

Manning arrived at the club last summer and had an outstanding first season in charge, leading the Dons to third in the table, only missing out on automatic promotion on the final day, before losing to Wycombe Wanderers in the play-off semi-finals.

But after losing a number of key players from that team, such as Scott Twine and Harry Darling, this campaign has been much more difficult.

The stats do not make good reading for Dons fans. They are the joint-second lowest scorers in the division in contrast to the free-scoring, entertaining side we saw last term and they have also lost 13 games, which is the most in the league.

Manning rightly had credit in the bank after last season and he was given time by chairman Pete Winkleman to turn their fortunes around, but it is difficult to criticise this decision.

He is not entirely to blame for their plight. Any manager in the division would struggle with losing players of Twine and Darling's quality, while loan players including Troy Parrott, Conor Coventry and Kaine Kesler-Hayden did not return.

Replacing those players was never going to be easy, but recruitment has not been good enough this summer. The club opted to go down the route of bringing in young players such as Conor Grant, Matthew Dennis, Darragh Burns and Dawson Devoy and while they may have potential, it is tough for them to thrive in a team low on confidence.

Bradley Johnson was a solid signing to add experience to the midfield, but Will Grigg has not been a prolific striker for a number of years now and was unlikely to ever be able to deliver the goals that Twine and Parrott did.

How much of the blame should be shared between Manning and Sporting Director Liam Sweening is open to debate, but it was a flawed strategy.

Manning was ultimately responsible for results on the pitch and regardless of the recruitment shortcomings, he had a squad at his disposal that is better than second bottom of the league.

The 37-year-old has not become a bad manager overnight and he was linked with a number of bigger clubs in the summer, but he cannot be absolved of blame for the amount of poor performances and the losing mentality that has been allowed to develop.

There was little sign of Manning turning things around and the decline from last season was alarming.

Change was needed as the Dons were sleepwalking to relegation, but the other issues need to be addressed and whoever comes needs to be allowed to spend in January to move the club away from danger.