Roberto Di Matteo

By Oli
March 23 2009

Dons manager Roberto Di Matteo admitted a superb performance from goalkeeper Willy Gueret, who denied Yeovil's Gavin Tomlin from the penalty spot, saved the Dons a point on Saturday at Huish Park, but maintained his side had chances to win the game. In a 0-0 stalemate Tomlin was denied midway through the first half, and although Dons had chances, Miguel Llera having a header cleared off the line, it was another tired performance from the Dons and they only really threatened from set-pieces.

Speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio and sounding a little dejected as the Dons dropped more points in the promotion race, Roberto said:

Roberto: "I think Willy Gueret today saved us a point. He's saved the penalty and then made a great save at the end. I think, in between, we had chances to score at least two goals which would have won us the game."

Question: "From your point of view, any complaints about the award of the penalty?"

R: "No, from the bench it looked like it was a clear penalty."

Q: "Willy Gueret stepped up though and it was a pretty decent penalty, in the corner, and he guessed right."

R: "Yeah it was a great save. He was good today."

Q: "You had, like you say, some chances yourself, but you made a change at half-time; what was the thinking behind bringing off [Flavien] Belson for [Luke] Chadwick?"

R: "He [Belson] had already been booked and we just wanted to be a bit more forward-going, although we had enough offensive players. I wanted to put a bit more pressure on them and try to win the game."

Q: "In the second half you decided to go with Jason Puncheon up front, rather than maybe bring on a striker; did you feel, with his pace, he could maybe unsettle them in the second half?"

R: "Exactly, with his ability and his pace I thought he could maybe get behind the defenders, or do something special, and win the game for us."

Q: "It's too many draws at the moment though, five out of seven, and it's hurting your automatic promotion chances."

R: "Yes, it's true, but it's more the home form than the away form that has cost us points."

Q: "Were you a little disappointed though that you couldn't break down a team that had conceded quite a few recently?"

R: "Absolutely, of course. Very disappointed."

Q: "I suppose on the back of that though, they had a little rally round, and in a way it might not have been the best time to play them, because they were really determined not to concede today after a couple of disappointing games."

R: "Yeah that's right, they had a bad result the other weekend but we missed a bit of that sharpness in the last third and in front of goal, and freshness a little bit. It didn't go for us."

Q: "Do you feel the team are feeling the effects of so many games?"

R: "Yeah I think so. You could see today, especially in the first half, it looked like the games were catching up with us."

Q: "They're still coming thick and fast, though; but for the first time in the run-in, as it were, it's now out of your hands; seven points behind with only six up for grabs in the two games in hand; does that affect you now?"

R: "It was always going to be tough, to be honest. It's about us, we need to win games, and that's the only way you can move forward in the table."

Q: "Are you relying on others a little bit now though?"

R: "Yes, but we'll try and push as hard as we can.