By Chris Slavin
Neal Ardley concluded that it was a poor team performance from Wimbledon's much-changed line-up at Yeovil Town, after last night's Checkatrade Trophy exit.
Speaking during an interview for iFollow after last night's 2-0 loss, Neal said: "The best team won. They were much more at it than us in every way, both physically and mentally. It was a poor performance. Too many players who had not played at first-team level for a while seemed to be a little bit rusty. We played players out of position, which was hard because of the lack of players we had, but that's no excuse. There is loads to learn from it, lots of development for the younger boys, but the best team won.
"We wanted to get to the latter rounds and we want to win every game to keep momentum going. We had to change the shape a little bit and put different players in different positions with what we had. We have four, five, six players on the treatment table and they would have been involved in this game. We had to turn out Cody McDonald and Harry Forrester again and we did not want to. The EFL want clubs to take the competition seriously, but then they make you play two games in two days and schedule it after an FA Cup weekend, which normally means that you play on a Sunday or a Monday, not on a Saturday. It's something they need to look at, but the best team won. Yeovil were better in every department."
Neal praised the 74 supporters who turned up to get behind the team at Huish Park last night.
"I take my hat off to those people," added Neal. "It's a competition that we as a club have our doubts about, but those fans turned up to support us. We did not give them much to support in the way of a performance, but they got to see some of the young boys on the pitch. Some are not ready, some need development, and that showed. First-team players also showed that they were a bit rusty and if they want to step-up and be in the team they need to tune in a bit more and get that little bit sharper."
The full post-match reaction is on iFollow and subscribers will be able to watch extended highlights of last night's game from 12 noon today.