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Ian Evatt promises that Wanderers will come back “bigger, better and stronger” after their play-off dreams were shattered at Barnsley.
Liam Kitching scored the only goal of the game to give the Tykes a 2-1 aggregate victory and a place in the League One final against Sheffield Wednesday.
Wanderers had finished fifth in the regular season, improving considerably on last season’s points tally, and had one of the best defensive records in the division.
But even though Dion Charles became the first player since 2001 to score 20 times in the same season, the total number of goals Bolton scored was not enough – and a similar story unfolded over two legs against Barnsley.
Evatt vowed to try and change that in the summer transfer market and will also have to find replacements for Conor Bradley and James Trafford, who both return to Liverpool and Manchester City respectively.
“The worst thing was the outcome,” said the Wanderers boss. “We controlled the game tonight and started the better team, had the ball, quietened their crowd, and their goal came out of the blue.
“It was definitely not a foul but then we concede from the second phase set play and it really rocked us. It took a long time for us to find our stride again and that came at the start of the second half – we had control again, saw all of the ball, but we just didn’t penetrate enough. We didn’t have the cutting edge.
“And that has been the story of the season. When you look at our defensive record it is up there with Ipswich and should see you in the top two but we just haven’t scored enough goals.
“It isn’t just down to the strikers, it is down to everyone to improve. One thing we will definitely do now is from this day on work really, really hard to find that improvement.
“We have to remember that Barnsley were in the Championship last season and two years ago we were a League Two club.
“We are making giant strides but we are not making them fast enough.
“There is significant improvements on and off the pitch and the board have been magnificent for me in their support, and that will continue. I have just said to the players that expectations are going to change again now and people are going to expect them to be in the top two next season.
“I don’t see why we can’t be – but from this moment on we can’t leave a single stone unturned. We have to come back bigger, better and stronger.”
Barnsley boss Michael Duff believed his side had shaded the tie over two games.
“It was never going to be 4-0 or 5-0 like the one last night,” he said. “It was a 50-50 game and it was always going to be horrible but I am glad we did what we needed to do to get the result.
“We worked hard and I think we deserved it.”
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