Matthews’ comment wasn’t a slight on the third-placed Bulldogs, but rather a nod to the recent woes that have seen the Lions squander last-quarter leads against Melbourne, Richmond and North Melbourne.
"I thought the opposition kicked their way out of it a bit but that’s poetic justice because we’ve kicked our way out of a couple of games in the last few weeks," Matthews said.
"I didn’t think we were necessarily the better team on the night. But we took our chances a little better and the fight to generate a win out of being behind and then to hold on in the last few minutes – that will be good for the self-confidence."
After the Bulldogs won the clearances 11-6 in the first quarter, the Lions fought back though the next three terms to record an overall 34-31 victory.
Matthews praised the work of Jamie Charman and fill-in ruckman and regular full-back Daniel Merrett, and said some calculated risk-taking around the stoppages had paid dividends.
"We thought if Will Minson wasn’t playing forward tonight it would be hard to find a match-up for Daniel as the Bulldogs tend to present a very medium-sized forward line," Matthews said.
"We picked Daniel to ruck against Minson and I thought Jamie was pretty solid tonight too.
"As the game went on the Bulldogs started to play forward footy and if they didn’t get the ball they got left behind.
"Whoever got the ball forward out of congestion was running into open space and our stoppage crew did a good at job making sure we took it away just as much as they did."
Matthews was also pleased with the efforts of key defender Joel Patfull, who had a tough outing against Hawthorn's Buddy Franklin last week but was influential against the Dogs.
Patfull’s well taken running goal from 35m in the last quarter proved decisive and he kept the dangerous Robert Murphy to 16 possessions and one goal.
"We actually thought Joel was okay against Buddy. To keep him to seven scoring shots was a bit of an heroic effort, because he normally has about 12," Matthews said.
“I thought the defensive group was pretty solid tonight. Joel was sent out to play on Murphy and it was good that he actually ran forward and had a couple of shots and kicked a goal."
