Roberto Di Matteo

By Oli
March 4 2009

Dons manager Roberto Di Matteo admits his squad will need to be at the peak of physical fitness as they head in to a huge 13 matches in under two months, but backs the referee's decision to call off Dons' clash with Northampton Town after heavy rain.

Speaking to the Milton Keynes Citizen about referee Keith Stroud's decision to call the Northampton game off at half-time, Roberto said:

"I think it was the right decision. It was unfortunate as it hadn't rained for days. It was just the afternoon and the pitch didn't seem to take it very well.

"You could see the water sitting on top of the pitch and it was hard underneath." 

And he admitted the cancellation would not make it any easier on the Dons players, with seven games remaining in March and another added, in the Northampton replay, to April.

"Our schedule is now going to look very packed so this won't make it any easier for us. There will be a further game in April now and we will have to find a date because Northampton have a packed schedule as well and they need to play as many as games as us.

"I don't think being three games behind will affect us mentally, but physically it will be tough as we need to play lots of games in just a short period of time."

Dons goalkeeper Willy Gueret echoed the manager's thoughts on the fixtures to come, and also thought that the decision to call off Tuesday's game was the right one.

He said: "It looks like we are going to play another seven games this month and six next month so it is a really busy time. After April everyone will be really looking forward to their holidays!

"But it is one of those things that you just have to deal with and it is not a bad thing to play every three days as it can keep your mind sharp.

"Maybe it was a better thing for us that it was called off as anything could have happened and considering we are playing for promotion we don't want any bad luck.

"That is why I think it was a really good decision as we can't afford to lose points because of the weather or through any other excuses."