Dons let Sunderland back into the game - Houghton

Lynden Gooch's wonder-goal with 11 minutes to go was the difference between the sides as the Black Cats claimed a 1-0 win, but it came after Dons had failed to capitalise on a strong first-half showing.

In a game with precious few chances, Sunderland were cleared off the line twice and Alim Ozturk missed an open goal to head over in the second period, with Gooch's goal enough to win it.

Houghton said Dons must learn to capitalise on their periods of control and said Dons let Sunderland back into the game after the break.

"The second half was frustrating," he said. "They were a bit more aggressive in the second half. As much as it was them, it was us as well. We weren't as aggressive, but we will look at it and make sure it doesn't happen again.

"We could have been a bit better playing out, a bit braver, held the ball up a bit more and it became a bit more end-to-end, which we didn't want. We wanted to control the games, and we showed we could do it in the first half, but we have to go on and control games for a full 90 minutes.

"We've played well today. Sunderland are a massive club, but it shows how far we've come in the short space of time under Russ. We're matching, if not bettering promotion-chasing teams. It's frustrating, but we have to pick ourselves up and look at the positives and negatives.

"It's disappointing to come away with nothing, especially after the first-half performance. Going in at half time, we were pleased. They're a top side, a big club and are going for promotion. But we didn't step on another gear in the second half to go on and win the game.

"We knew the first 10 or 15 minutes would be tough and we'd have to ridt it out and we did that. We came into the game and controlled it, we did what we wanted to do. We did it well, we created a few half chances which on another day might have gone in."