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Neil Lennon refused to blame a worrying week in the recent history of Bolton Wanderers for his side’s 2-1 defeat at Reading.
The Whites sunk to the bottom of the Championship table after ruining a decent start at the Madejski Stadium to fall two goals behind.
Lucas Piazon and Danny Williams struck inside six first-half minutes to put the Royals into a commanding position.
Wanderers improved in the second half but thought they halved the deficit through Liam Feeney’s fourth goal of the season from the penalty spot, they did not have enough to salvage a point.
As financial worries stack up at the club and the ongoing ownership issues continue to provide a distraction, Lennon has plenty to occupy his mind.
But results on the pitch continue to be poor – and defeat in Berkshire leaves the Whites four points adrift of safety.
“It shouldn’t affect them – we’ve kept them well away,” said Lennon of off-the-field issues that have dominated the headlines this week.
“They can’t affect it. It isn’t in their control. But what they can affect is on the pitch and I keep telling them that.
“There were positives – Wheater was excellent Vela was outstanding the reaction was very, very good. But I’m looking at some senior players when we go a goal down to manage the team and they don’t. And that’s been the problem at this club for the last three years.
“They can’t feel sorry for themselves. They have to roll their sleeves up and we’re all giving them our full support.
“But they are the ones crossing the white line and being asked to give their all, and some of them are coming up short.”
Lennon rued individual errors which led to Reading’s two goals and ruined what had been an encouraging start to the game in which ex-Bolton keeper Ali Al-Habsi made a string of superb saves to keep them at bay.
“We gave them their goals on a plate,” he said. “We should have been three up by that point but again we’ve put ourselves under pressure.
“I said to the players at half time that we had to get that first goal. We got the penalty and went for it at the end. But we can’t be leaving it until the last 10 minutes hoping the cavalry will arrive.
“You look at yourself as a manager – was my team selection right? Well, yes, because we could have been three up.
“You can’t legislate for individual sloppy errors from Mark Davies and Prince and it ended up being the story of the game because there is no way that Reading were the better team today – we were by far the better team.”
Source
The Whites sunk to the bottom of the Championship table after ruining a decent start at the Madejski Stadium to fall two goals behind.
Lucas Piazon and Danny Williams struck inside six first-half minutes to put the Royals into a commanding position.
Wanderers improved in the second half but thought they halved the deficit through Liam Feeney’s fourth goal of the season from the penalty spot, they did not have enough to salvage a point.
As financial worries stack up at the club and the ongoing ownership issues continue to provide a distraction, Lennon has plenty to occupy his mind.
But results on the pitch continue to be poor – and defeat in Berkshire leaves the Whites four points adrift of safety.
“It shouldn’t affect them – we’ve kept them well away,” said Lennon of off-the-field issues that have dominated the headlines this week.
“They can’t affect it. It isn’t in their control. But what they can affect is on the pitch and I keep telling them that.
“There were positives – Wheater was excellent Vela was outstanding the reaction was very, very good. But I’m looking at some senior players when we go a goal down to manage the team and they don’t. And that’s been the problem at this club for the last three years.
“They can’t feel sorry for themselves. They have to roll their sleeves up and we’re all giving them our full support.
“But they are the ones crossing the white line and being asked to give their all, and some of them are coming up short.”
Lennon rued individual errors which led to Reading’s two goals and ruined what had been an encouraging start to the game in which ex-Bolton keeper Ali Al-Habsi made a string of superb saves to keep them at bay.
“We gave them their goals on a plate,” he said. “We should have been three up by that point but again we’ve put ourselves under pressure.
“I said to the players at half time that we had to get that first goal. We got the penalty and went for it at the end. But we can’t be leaving it until the last 10 minutes hoping the cavalry will arrive.
“You look at yourself as a manager – was my team selection right? Well, yes, because we could have been three up.
“You can’t legislate for individual sloppy errors from Mark Davies and Prince and it ended up being the story of the game because there is no way that Reading were the better team today – we were by far the better team.”
Source
