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George Thomason has backed Dion Charles to put his Portsmouth disappointment quickly behind him.
Defeat at Fratton Park on Monday night was exacerbated by a gilt-edged first-half miss from Wanderers’ top scorer.
With the whole goal begging, Charles shuffled a shot wide from close range after Pompey keeper Will Norris had pushed Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s header directly into his path.
The incident proved a turning point in the game but Thomason leapt to the defence of his team-mate, insisting that his excellent scoring record in a Bolton shirt will continue.
“Everyone is disappointed we lost the game, but it is definitely not down to one individual,” he told The Bolton News.
“He knows he is a top striker and nine times out of 10 they go in.
“He has scored a hatful of goals for us so we are not going to dwell on it. We know he is capable of producing moments and scoring goals week-in, week-out, and he offers so much to the team besides his goals too.”
Wanderers did appear to lose their focus after Charles’s chance had gone begging but Thomason held up his hands after losing his man in the build-up to Portsmouth’s opening goal on the stroke of half time.
The midfielder said: “Dion missed a chance but I was probably at fault for the first goal, and he was the first one over to me, arm round the shoulder and saying ‘next one’.
“So, there is no time to dwell on errors out there. The game is too short, too fast-paced to be thinking over that sort of scenario, you have to just crack on and do the next positive action.”
Wanderers welcome Bristol Rovers to the Toughsheet Stadium on Saturday looking for a quick response.
The team has not lost successive league games since last October and Thomason believes the disappointment of the performance and result on the South Coast will be put behind them.
“We have shown enough over recent years to say we have character in this squad,” he said.
“When the chips are down we always seem to rise again and it is about putting the result to the back of our minds now. Hurt now, hurt tomorrow but there has to be a time when you move on and start thinking about the next challenge, which comes along on Saturday.
“Analyse, see where you can better, but that’s it. We have a clear identity as a team and we need to make sure we are getting better at that plan A, and plan B, and get ourselves back on another run.”
Wanderers will be without midfielder Josh Sheehan for Saturday’s game against Rovers after he picked up a fifth yellow card of the season at Portsmouth.
With the 19-game threshold now reached, Jack Iredale and Paris Maghoma will not be suspended if they pick up another caution, the limit now extended to 10.
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