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Phil Parkinson insists defeat against Swindon Town had nothing to do with the impending FA Cup replay at Crystal Palace.
Distraction was not an issue for the Whites boss as Yaser Kasim snatched a late winner for the struggling Robins at the Macron.
But Parkinson admits there was something missing in a normally-reliable line-up and called for his players to “brush themselves off quickly” before tomorrow night’s trip to Selhurst Park.
“I don’t think there has been any distraction, I can’t use that as an excuse,” he told The Bolton News. “We need to pick ourselves up, go down to Palace and give it everything we possibly can.
“We weren’t at our best (against Swindon). I’d picked a team with three players who’d missed most of the week’s training and I just felt that in the first half we were a yard off the pace.
“I don’t think it’s a team fatigue issue, just my own thought that it wasn’t quite right, but the performance picked up well in the second half and should have got a result. We had chances but became too vulnerable. We needed to kill the game off.”
Saturday’s game became a tactical tussle, with Wanderers looking to exploit Swindon’s lack of width and the Robins giving new loan signing Ben Gladwin ample chance to influence the game as the spare man in midfield.
“Playing the diamond, which they do, it created opportunities for us,” Parkinson said. “We got into some good positions with Taylor and Clough on one side and then James and Lawrie on the other. But equally they are going to have extra bodies in the middle of the pitch and there were times in the second half where we were outnumbered.
“It was a case of ‘could our system dictate to theirs?’ We needed to get crosses in, we needed to switch play quickly, and I think we did. But we didn’t make the most of the situations we got ourselves in.
“We just ended up looking too vulnerable on the break. The way to get the second goal was to show a good, solid shape but I felt there was another goal coming, I really did.
“We haven’t done that this season. We have always had a solid base to try and win the game but at least not lose it. Towards the end it was ‘you attack, we attack’ and we have been well and truly punished.”
There is no time to mope around for Wanderers, who will travel down to South London tomorrow looking to inflict more misery on old boss Sam Allardyce, who has not enjoyed the best of starts to life at Palace.
“It’s a low dressing room because we’ve had a great run at home and we don’t like getting beat. It ruins the weekend but also the start of the week,” Parkinson said.
“We have got a terrific game to look forward to at Selhurst Park. We go down there knowing there is a big prize on offer to the winner. We have to give it everything we can.”
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Distraction was not an issue for the Whites boss as Yaser Kasim snatched a late winner for the struggling Robins at the Macron.
But Parkinson admits there was something missing in a normally-reliable line-up and called for his players to “brush themselves off quickly” before tomorrow night’s trip to Selhurst Park.
“I don’t think there has been any distraction, I can’t use that as an excuse,” he told The Bolton News. “We need to pick ourselves up, go down to Palace and give it everything we possibly can.
“We weren’t at our best (against Swindon). I’d picked a team with three players who’d missed most of the week’s training and I just felt that in the first half we were a yard off the pace.
“I don’t think it’s a team fatigue issue, just my own thought that it wasn’t quite right, but the performance picked up well in the second half and should have got a result. We had chances but became too vulnerable. We needed to kill the game off.”
Saturday’s game became a tactical tussle, with Wanderers looking to exploit Swindon’s lack of width and the Robins giving new loan signing Ben Gladwin ample chance to influence the game as the spare man in midfield.
“Playing the diamond, which they do, it created opportunities for us,” Parkinson said. “We got into some good positions with Taylor and Clough on one side and then James and Lawrie on the other. But equally they are going to have extra bodies in the middle of the pitch and there were times in the second half where we were outnumbered.
“It was a case of ‘could our system dictate to theirs?’ We needed to get crosses in, we needed to switch play quickly, and I think we did. But we didn’t make the most of the situations we got ourselves in.
“We just ended up looking too vulnerable on the break. The way to get the second goal was to show a good, solid shape but I felt there was another goal coming, I really did.
“We haven’t done that this season. We have always had a solid base to try and win the game but at least not lose it. Towards the end it was ‘you attack, we attack’ and we have been well and truly punished.”
There is no time to mope around for Wanderers, who will travel down to South London tomorrow looking to inflict more misery on old boss Sam Allardyce, who has not enjoyed the best of starts to life at Palace.
“It’s a low dressing room because we’ve had a great run at home and we don’t like getting beat. It ruins the weekend but also the start of the week,” Parkinson said.
“We have got a terrific game to look forward to at Selhurst Park. We go down there knowing there is a big prize on offer to the winner. We have to give it everything we can.”
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