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Ian Evatt felt Wanderers were not far away from scoring a landslide of goals against Cheltenham at the UniBol yesterday.
The Bolton boss claims Ricardo Santos was wrongly adjudged offside when he turned in George Thomason’s deflected shot with the visitors 2-1 up.
And he reckons his side had a good shout for a penalty turned down at the end when Nathan Delfouneso’s cross appeared to bounce off the arm of Chris Hussey.
Several other second-half chances came and went – and though Evatt was pleased with the resolve his players had shown to twice come from behind, he believed there would have been plenty more goals in the game if they had found a third.
“I have certainly seen those penalties given, for sure,” he said of Delfouneso’s late claim.
“I think we are more disappointed with the offside goal because it’s not close really.
“It is clearly onside and we can’t really afford to get these decisions wrong.
“It is a big moment in the game right after half time. I feel like with our momentum we would have probably gone on to score more and even when we did get the equaliser, we probably should have scored more.
“We had big chances with Eoin, a few at the back post where we didn’t quite take them, but lots of positives today.
“We have focused a lot on the negatives in recent times. We have to focus on lots of positives today.”
Wanderers had to switch shapes midway through the first half after Cheltenham started with an unfamiliar back four and gained the early advantage.
Integral to improvement in the first half was young midfielder George Thomason, who impressed again in the middle of the park.
“It was great that they listened to instruction and understood where the space was,” Evatt reflected. “We wanted to try and create overloads out wide.
“We knew that we could hurt them in that way and yes, George has got a wand of a left foot.
“He is a talented young player and that’s what is really pleasing. At the start of the season when we had a fully fit squad, the development of George and young Liam (Gordon) at times has been stunted because the other lads were doing so well. But now we have got so many injuries, they have been pushed back into the fold again and they are not letting anybody down.
“They have got real quality, they are trying their heart out, they are improving all the time. I am pleased with them all.”
Both sets of supporters joined in unison with a standing ovation of six minutes as a tribute to former Bolton player, Gary Speed, on the 10th anniversary of their death.
“I think what happened with Gary still really affects people and we all fail really to understand how that all played out,” Evatt added. “It is really, really sad but pleased that we gave him the respect that he deserves.”
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