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Ian Evatt says his side has got to get a grip on the ‘dark arts’ in League One.
The Wanderers boss reckons defeat at home to Oxford United highlighted some deficiencies that have also been exploited by the likes of Barnsley, Accrington and Burton Albion in the last few games.
But whereas Bolton were able to conjure late fightbacks to claim victory in their previous two outings, the manner of defeat on Saturday left Evatt looking for improvement.
“I just think we’re naive as a team,” he told The Bolton News. “I look at all the opposition and Karl (Robinson), and I admire his honesty, he was talking about gamesmanship and the way they managed the game and at least he’s owned it, which I appreciate.
“But we don’t do that. We’re naive. We don’t buy fouls, so to speak, we don’t draw the referee’s attention to some underhand tactics in our penalty area. We’re just happy to defend naively and hopefully that’s good enough.
“That just comes from experience really, but as a team in general I think we’re improving in that department. But I still think there’s loads to learn, the dark arts of the game.
“I’m not saying I want us to be a team good at dark arts, no I don’t, because I don’t believe it’s the right way to go, but I think we can manage things better.”
Wanderers took 10 points from a possible 21 during October, maintaining a play-off spot but Evatt accepts that performance levels have not been entirely to his satisfaction.
He remains convinced that improvement can be coached, especially with a drop-off in the number of midweek games during November.
“We just need to be loads better than we have been in the last month and we can be in all departments,” he said. “We can’t be deluded and say things have been really good and we’ve been playing really well because we haven’t, especially this month.
“I think there’s loads more and better performances to come, but what I will say is we’ve found a way the last couple of games in particular to win when we’re not at our best. Today we couldn’t and got found out, but we’re still sixth, we’re still in the top six and that’s where we aim and want to be and I still think with 30 games to go, there’s loads more to come from this group.
“All is not lost. We’re obviously disappointed but we have to manage the highs and the lows. We’ve had a couple of highs, and now we have to manage today’s low and come back stronger.”
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