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Ian Evatt has pin-pointed where he felt Wanderers missed their best chance to claim a victory at Morecambe on Saturday.
The Whites were held to a goalless draw at the Mazuma Stadium in what was their eighth game in 28 days in all competitions.
Evatt admitted that the Shrimps’ decision to press man-for-man across the whole pitch in the first half came as some surprise, given the way his opponents had tackled recent games.
The inability to adjust early on, or use the pace of Dion Charles in behind his marker, Farend Rawson, ended up costing Bolton a foothold in the game, says the manager.
“We didn’t find the space quick enough. We are a football team and we want to build from the back, play through, but they were so man-for-man that once we’d linked one or two passes and invited that pressure it should have been a case of putting it into the space. It is pretty old fashioned but you have to play what the game gives you, and that is what it offered us first half.
“We didn’t take that solution enough, when we did, we should have scored.”
Morecambe changed their approach in the second half and started to get more men behind the ball.
Though Wanderers got more possession, Evatt admits they did not use it well enough to get ahead.
“Start of the second half we were really dominant and had lots of the ball but we didn’t have that moment of composure, or quality, we were a bit loose,” he said. “Maybe that was the pitch, maybe fatigue, I don’t know, but we can be a lot better in the final third. We can be more ruthless and tighter.
“Nevertheless, it was a point gained and we will move on.”
The performance of referee Oliver Langford and his officials also came in for scrutiny on the day, with Evatt adamant his side should have been given a first-half penalty for a foul on Declan John.
In what proved a physical encounter, the Bolton boss felt frustrated that his players had not been given the rub of the green.
“You expected a physical game but you also want the officials to be consistent,” he added.
“Sometimes I felt he was giving really soft fouls for them and we were getting absolutely smashed from behind and there is absolutely nothing given. I don’t get the consistency of it all.”
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