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Ian Evatt was left to rue his team’s frightening inconstancy once again as Wanderers slumped to defeat against Tranmere Rovers.
Having earned a fine away victory at Cheltenham in midweek, the Whites produced a performance with few redeeming features to gift Keith Hill’s visitors three points in their final game before Christmas.
Bolton had chances early on through Eoin Doyle, Harry Brockbank and Nathan Delfouneso but once they fell behind to Peter Clarke’s header, there seemed little chance of them getting back into the contest.
Kieron Morris doubled the lead with a low drive on 68 minutes before James Vaughan netted his 12th of the season from the penalty spot after an apparent handball by Alex Baptiste.
“I don’t think the scoreline was reflective of the game,” argued the Bolton boss. “But we wouldn’t have scored in a month of Sundays. It was one of those games.
“Maybe we put too much into Tuesday and just didn’t recover in time. This whole division is nuts – you look at the scores today and we’re still three or four wins off top. It is madness.
“I don’t know what I am going to get day to day, game to game. I don’t think the scoreline was reflective at all because everything they hit went in, whereas everything we did hit someone else. It was a frustrating day at the office, to be honest.”
Wanderers have won just three of 10 games at home this season – and Evatt was at a loss to explain how his side could produce two displays of such different nature within a couple of days.
“We have found that consistency once and looked like a proper team who could kick on but since then we have again been consistently inconsistent,” he said.
“We have not given ourselves a chance today and they have not had to work hard for their goals. We defended the box ever so well from set pieces on Tuesday night at Cheltenham but they scored from the corner, which gave them something to hold on to, and we were pushing and pushing but I just don’t think anything went for us on the day. We didn’t finish with the right decision or the right pass, and if we did the ball didn’t find its way into the net.
“I am frustrated for them but we have to knuckle down and we have another fixture on Boxing Day, so we will try and get a result at Carlisle.”
Bolton made just one change – Harry Brockbank coming in for Reiss Greenidge – and Evatt admitted his side looked jaded either side of half time.
“Maybe it’s energy levels,” he said. “You keep asking players to go to the well and sooner rather than later the well runs dry.
“We put a huge amount of effort into Tuesday. You look at Tranmere in the last 20 minutes and they were out on their feet but we had to be in the game at that point. When you move teams side to side with the ball, eventually they are going to get tired and someone will switch off and you have to take your opportunities but we weren’t in the game to give ourselves that chance – and that’s what is frustrating.”
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Having earned a fine away victory at Cheltenham in midweek, the Whites produced a performance with few redeeming features to gift Keith Hill’s visitors three points in their final game before Christmas.
Bolton had chances early on through Eoin Doyle, Harry Brockbank and Nathan Delfouneso but once they fell behind to Peter Clarke’s header, there seemed little chance of them getting back into the contest.
Kieron Morris doubled the lead with a low drive on 68 minutes before James Vaughan netted his 12th of the season from the penalty spot after an apparent handball by Alex Baptiste.
“I don’t think the scoreline was reflective of the game,” argued the Bolton boss. “But we wouldn’t have scored in a month of Sundays. It was one of those games.
“Maybe we put too much into Tuesday and just didn’t recover in time. This whole division is nuts – you look at the scores today and we’re still three or four wins off top. It is madness.
“I don’t know what I am going to get day to day, game to game. I don’t think the scoreline was reflective at all because everything they hit went in, whereas everything we did hit someone else. It was a frustrating day at the office, to be honest.”
Wanderers have won just three of 10 games at home this season – and Evatt was at a loss to explain how his side could produce two displays of such different nature within a couple of days.
“We have found that consistency once and looked like a proper team who could kick on but since then we have again been consistently inconsistent,” he said.
“We have not given ourselves a chance today and they have not had to work hard for their goals. We defended the box ever so well from set pieces on Tuesday night at Cheltenham but they scored from the corner, which gave them something to hold on to, and we were pushing and pushing but I just don’t think anything went for us on the day. We didn’t finish with the right decision or the right pass, and if we did the ball didn’t find its way into the net.
“I am frustrated for them but we have to knuckle down and we have another fixture on Boxing Day, so we will try and get a result at Carlisle.”
Bolton made just one change – Harry Brockbank coming in for Reiss Greenidge – and Evatt admitted his side looked jaded either side of half time.
“Maybe it’s energy levels,” he said. “You keep asking players to go to the well and sooner rather than later the well runs dry.
“We put a huge amount of effort into Tuesday. You look at Tranmere in the last 20 minutes and they were out on their feet but we had to be in the game at that point. When you move teams side to side with the ball, eventually they are going to get tired and someone will switch off and you have to take your opportunities but we weren’t in the game to give ourselves that chance – and that’s what is frustrating.”
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