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Ian Evatt is confident Wanderers’ fortunes will change in front of goal but admitted the chances created against Bristol Rovers on Friday night should have led to three points.
Bolton peppered 19 shots on their opponents, with all but four of the 15 players that entered the field trying their luck.
Only keeper James Trafford, George Johnston, Eoin Toal and Aaron Morley didn’t register a shot at James Belshaw’s goal as the Whites looked to overturn a 1-0 deficit inflicted in the second minute of the game by Josh Coburn.
Dion Charles did rescue a draw with a neat finish deep into injury time but with the number of chances his side created Evatt believes his side should have been out of sight.
“We should have won, I don’t think anybody could argue,” he said. “I think they had two shots, one on target in the first minute of the game and after that, we had 19 shots, five on target and completely dominated.
“I’ve never known a spell where we’re having so many chances and so much dominance, so much final third position and we’re just not taking them. I just think that has to change. We’re doing so much work on it. I have so much faith in them all and it has to change.
“There’s so much right about our performances at the moment, but we’re just lacking that final 10 to 15 per cent, but that will come. It was a game that we should have won, deserved to win clearly and I’m really pleased. The players never know when they’re beat and despite the chaos and disruption, they kept their focus and carried on until the end.”
Charles is Bolton’s leading goalscorer on seven in all competitions this season but before Friday had scored just once in his previous 10 outings.
The Northern Ireland international was dropped to the bench against Bristol Rovers but capitalised after a facial injury to Jon Dadi Bodvarsson.
“He’s been having a rough time,” Evatt said. “And that happens with strikers and sometimes.
“You need to come out of the team to share the pressure with a team-mate and to just reset, refocus yourself.
“He has done that, he missed a big chance when he came on but he kept his focus, belief and scored a wonderful equaliser.”
With Plymouth, Ipswich and Peterborough all dropping points, a win against Rovers would have given Bolton a real boost over the weekend.
But while there was some disappointment in a dressing room still shaken by the sudden hospitalisation of club captain Ricardo Santos, Evatt believes there is still plenty to be encouraged about.
“I think there’s a mixture of the two in there, I think we are positive about a lot of the things we’re doing,” he said. “There’s obviously some frustration when you have that much dominance that you really should win football matches, but you’ve got no given right to win these games.
“You’ve only got to look at the results elsewhere to see that it’s not easy gaining points in this division consistently and I think we’re doing that at the moment. But there’s a lot to like about what we’re doing. I still feel there’s significant improvement to come and there will be.
“But for now just focus on ourselves, focus on what we’re doing, the boys are working extremely hard, they’ve worked extremely hard today and deserve more than what they got.”
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