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Ian Evatt admits Wanderers’ ‘Achilles Heel’ was exposed in seven manic first-half minutes at Burton Albion.
Three down after just 18 minutes at the Pirelli Stadium, Bolton struggled to defend long throws, corners and free kicks in difficult conditions to lose their seven-game unbeaten run.
Evatt was upset, having named his most physical 11 possible, but conceded that it is not the first time this season that his players have been left wanting in such a way.
Asked what went wrong against Burton, he said: “Seven minutes of not dealing with set plays.
Two corners and a long throw. I picked the biggest team I possibly could because I knew what was coming. Everyone could see the conditions, we knew what they were about and we just didn’t individually do our jobs and deal with our men.
“That has cost us the game and other than that, I don’t think they had a shot on goal. I think it was all us but we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable for not doing the basics well enough and it’s annoying and frustrating.”
Burton kept the Bolton goal under pressure in the first half but Evatt argued that it had been his side who created the better chances in open play.
“I don’t know what else they did in the game other than corners and throws ins,” he said. “I don’t see anything else.
“We had the better open play chances in the first half.
“We just didn’t deal with the throw ins and the two corners and every set piece they had in the first half, it looked like they were going to score. But other than that there was nothing.
“When you come to these games and these grounds you’ve got to cope with that and it seems to be a deficiency and an Achilles heel for us at the moment.”
Evatt made four changes to the side that beat Oxford United, leaving Dion Charles and Dapo Afolayan on the bench in favour of a more physical front two of Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Amadou Bakayoko.
“Whether I have got the team wrong or not, I don’t know. I will be the first one to analyse that – I am my biggest critic and also my biggest fan,” he said.
“I have to look at things. I picked the biggest team I could because I knew what was coming and it didn’t work out.
“We set a number and a target inside our four walls for what we need to do to have an opportunity and losing this game doesn’t really change anything, it just makes it harder.
“Our margin for error is even finer now. I am just sorry for our fans who have come all this way to see us get beat. We huffed and puffed in the second half and did the best we could but it is tough in these conditions.”
Wanderers host Wimbledon on Saturday and also have a home game against Lincoln the following Tuesday. Evatt insists his players have to move on quickly.
“We can’t dwell on what has happened. We are apologetic but we just have to be better at dealing with it,” he said.
“If you look at the stats before the game, we don’t score many set plays but we also don’t concede many – we’re right up the top of the table.
“It is inexplicable and something where we have just not done our job well enough.”
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