Milton Keynes Dons 5-0 Swindon Town: Robins relegated after one season in League One

Saturday's 5-0 defeat by MK Dons was Swindon's heaviest loss of the season

Swindon Town were relegated from League One after just one season following a heavy defeat at MK Dons, in which Will Grigg scored four goals.

The Robins, second from bottom of the table, needed a positive result to stand any chance of staying up.

But their relegation was all but confirmed by half-time as Grigg scored either side of Scott Fraser's penalty to give Dons a 3-0 lead at the break.

Grigg struck twice more early in the second half to seal Swindon's fate.

The defeat - their heaviest of the campaign - comes at the end of a miserable season for the Robins, who have seen two managers depart, while also enduring ongoing unrest off the field.

John Sheridan resigned last Sunday having only taken over from Richie Wellens - who led them to promotion last season - in November, saying he hoped someone could come in and "work a miracle".

However, despite Tuesday's 3-1 win against Portsmouth offering brief hope, a sixth loss in seven confirmed their relegation.

Away from the pitch, Swindon and owner Lee Power were also charged earlier this month by the Football Association regarding the ownership and/or funding of the club.

Many supporters have been protesting against Power, who in February described the Robins as being "on the brink of bankruptcy".

Grigg on fire for Dons

Grigg, who had only scored four goals in his previous 17 games for Dons since joining from Sunderland on deadline day in February, doubled his tally and in doing so became the club's first player to score four in a single match.

The Northern Ireland international steered home the first from a cut back by Fraser, who doubled the lead from the spot after Mathieu Baudry had been penalised for handball.

Grigg scored his second on the stroke of half-time when his left-footed effort on the turn trickled in and then completed his hat-trick less than a minute into the second half when he slid in to finish another Fraser pass.

And the striker completed the scoring when he stroked home a fourth three minutes later to confirm Swindon's relegation with two games to play.

'It could have been 10' - Wright

Swindon's caretaker boss Tommy Wright, who has been placed in charge until the end of the season, was not impressed with this side's performance, and said it was "a very tame way to get relegated".

"It was always going to be an uphill battle to stay up, but to go down like that, with not a lot of pride and not a lot of effort - it could have been 10," he said.

"They were good, but we were so placid for the first 25 minutes.

"I'm really disappointed with the way we played. To go down like that, we need to look at ourselves - it's just not good enough, really.

"You're playing against a good team, and you might get beat, but get beat in a manner that you can show to the people of Swindon that we're going to fight all the way.

"It was like we accepted we were going to go down - it's not acceptable, really."