Terry Brown has warned his AFC Wimbledon players they are a million miles from League Two safety.

The Dons manager was left wondering what might have been after they lost to basement boys Northampton Town 1-0 on Tuesday night at Sixfields, leaving them again looking nervously towards the Football League trapdoor.

Brown believes if his side could have won at Sixfields and beaten out-of-sorts Aldershot in the match before, when they lost 2-1, they would now be eyeing a play-off place, but, instead, they are just 11 points off the bottom two and survival is now their sole ambition.

"We're not safe yet, not by a long stretch - nowhere near it in fact" he said.

"We now need to go and beat Morecambe on Saturday because we've got ourselves in a spot of bother again.

"A point would have been decent at Northampton.

"If we could have won and also beaten Aldershot like we probably should have looking at their form, we would be looking at the top seven rather than down at the bottom two but that's how it is.

"I see our home games being very important now.

"We need to pick some points up and soon – we're at the stage where draws at home aren't really good enough."

The Dons, who were able to start Jason Euell for only the second time in a loan spell due to end this week, managed only two shots on target during the whole game on Tuesday.

Town were on top in the first half but the away team would have gone ahead had record signing Byron Harrison's first touch been better from Euell's pass.

The hosts had their chances and Wimbledon were indebted to Gavin Hoyte for heading off the line from Kelvin Langmead seconds before the whistle for half-time.

Brown's team should have gone ahead 12 minutes into the second half. Jack Midson caused mayhem down the Northampton right and time seemed to stand still as fans' hero Euell – possibly playing his last game for the club – fired over, unmarked from two yards out.

The Dons were suitably punished. Substitute Toni Silver was handed a free run by Gareth Gwillim's misplaced pass and the winger ran and ran until the ball eventually fell to Luke Guttridge and he fired home with nine minutes to go.

Sam Hatton hit the post in the closing stages but back-to-back defeats couldn't be prevented.

"First half, we never got our game going" added Brown.

"In the second half we came out invigorated and took it to them and had some good chances but our passes in the final third weren't good enough.

"I couldn't see them scoring if I am being honest – it had 0-0 written all over it and we were caught out by a sucker punch."