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Defeat at Portsmouth was Wanderers’ first in a dozen games – but Ian Evatt refuses to brush the reasons under the carpet.
The Bolton boss has vowed to drill down into the detail of disappointment at Fratton Park, insisting that a poor performance on the South Coast did not deserve to “pass without comment” as the next match against Bristol Rovers comes into sight.
Wanderers sit second, now six points behind Pompey, and have back-to-back home games before Christmas to get themselves back up and running.
Evatt was deeply unhappy, however, that plans made to exploit weakness in their hosts on Monday night were abandoned so readily on the pitch.
“I can’t deal with mediocrity,” he said. “It eats me alive and that was mediocre at best, for us. It is the players who set that bar, they have raised their levels. I am the first one to praise them, I am the first one to stand up and say they deserve praise when they are not getting it – but I also have to be the first one to criticise when they deserve it.
“That performance warranted criticism. It lacked energy. In the middle of the park we got dominated, there were one or two moments but it wasn’t enough. We tried to get fresh legs into midfield but, again, that didn’t happen.
“We knew the switch of play hurts them and when we did it caused them problems. Everything we had worked on in the previous three days went out of the window because we got beat up.
Wanderers’ work in possession deteriorated as the game wore on at Pompey, with 43.2 per cent of their touches taken in the Pompey half during the first 45 minutes, dropping to just 29.5 in the second period of the game.
“Their opportunities were not necessarily from good play, they were more from being physical and aggressive, winning the second balls, playing to the third line, being direct and roughing Rico (Ricardo Santos) up, and we didn’t respond in the right way. We certainly didn’t show what we were capable of doing in possession,” Evatt complained.
“We were happy to let the game drift and they were happy for us to play backwards and sideways and that happened far too often. We didn’t take enough responsibility, individually or collectively, and it is something we have to work on.
“I have said before that we haven’t cracked it. This is a good team and they are capable of some really good things, some good performances, but that was nowhere near it.”
Though frustrated that defeat at Pompey had ended a long unblemished run, Evatt believes his side will react in the right manner when Bristol Rovers come to the Toughsheet Stadium this weekend.
“The game taught me something because I honestly thought we had moved past that type of performance,” he said. “It is strange that all the confidence we had seen in the previous few weeks, and even in the first half to create the opportunity we did, drained away so quickly.
“That needs to be looked at, we can’t let it pass without comment, but I will say this of my players – when they have been asked questions and posed a challenge they have always managed to respond in the right way. I expect that will happen again on Saturday.”
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