Terry Brown has given his AFC Wimbledon squad a Christmas ultimatum – shape up or ship out.

The Dons were much-improved against Rotherham United on Saturday but wasted a hatful of chances and lost 1-0 – extending their run without a win in League Two to nine matches.

They face Oxford United, Southend United and Swindon Town – all top seven teams – in the space of eight days after Christmas and Brown has told his players they are playing for their futures ahead of the January transfer window.

“We have got three games over Christmas and we need to get something out of them,” he said.

“I don’t want to be saying we played some good football and deserved points – we have to get points.

“This takes us into the January window and my players have to realise their performances over the next three games determine how deep I have to delve into the window.

“If we pick up no points over the next three games then I will have to definitely let some players go and get some in.”

Luke Moore and Lee Minshull both missed twice on Saturday while Jack Midson was also guilty of being off target, leaving Brown to lament poor finishing.

“It was our best performance for a while and we played really well but we created five clear cut golden chances and with bad finishing or bad luck, however you describe it, we didn’t score them,” he said.

“One or two you could say is bad luck but five is bad finishing.

“You get in runs like this because we are not scoring goals – when we were winning games we had Jack on fire and Christian Jolley on fire.

“Now Christian has been injured and you cannot keep relying on Jack.

“We are suffering from bad finishing and I have to get a lot more goals out of the rest of the team – I have been saying that for two seasons now. It is an area we need to improve on and with the January window coming up it is an area I am going to have to address.

“But the positive from Saturday was Mat Mitchel-King getting through 83 minutes on debut – he linked up well with Jamie Stuart.

“If he can get himself match fit, which he isn’t at the moment, then we have a very good signing there.”

Brown will be boosted against Oxford on Monday with the return of Jolley after injury and possibly Callum McNaughton, but Kieran Djilali is still a long way from fitness.