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Wanderers boss Ian Evatt felt his side “dominated” against Plymouth Argyle – but says they need to do better in both boxes.
The Whites suffered a 2-0 defeat at Home Park after goals from Niall Ennis and Ryan Hardie either side of half-time.
Kieran Lee and Amadou Bakayoko both had big chances in the final third as Evatt’s men suffered back-to-back league defeats.
“Between boxes, we controlled the game. We completely dominated the game, but we lost the battle and we lost the moments in both boxes,” said the Bolton chief.
“We had enough chances to win four or five games and then two moments, we don’t defend well enough.
“If you do that, you lose football matches. We have come here, we have completely dominated and dictated the game and just been sucker punched twice.
“We fix it by defending our own box better and making sure we take our chances.
“You can say the keeper has made good saves, but he shouldn’t have a chance to make the saves. They should be finished clinically, job done.”
Evatt says the whole squad needs to take responsibility for the result and is keen to bounce back against Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night.
He added: “We cant just blame the back three, four, five – whatever we play. Everyone has to take responsibility.
“I have been in changing rooms where defenders blame the attackers for not taking chances, and attackers blame the defenders for not keeping clean sheets. It is a vicious circle.
“The facts are they both need to be better. We need to take our chances and they need to defend better, it is as simple as that.
“If we play like that, I think we will win a lot more games than we lose.
“We can’t overreact and say it was a poor performance, it wasn’t. We have dominated but we just didn’t take the moments in both boxes.”
The Bolton boss made five changes from the side that faced Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup second round.
“I don’t think the five changes affected our performance, I think the performance was generally good,” he said.
“How many teams have come here and dominated them like that? Not many.
“But you have to win the moments. Football is about moments and you have to win the battle in both boxes.
“Regardless of what goes on in between and how we play, move, pass the ball. We need to be better in both boxes and today we weren’t.”
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