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There was a joke to be made as Jack Iredale said Wanderers must get “back on the horse” against Cheltenham – but nobody was in a laughing mood after Saturday’s defeat at Leyton Orient.
An unimpressed Ian Evatt described an “awful” performance in East London, standing arms-folded and po-faced alongside members of his coaching staff and analysis team at the end of the tunnel on Saturday evening, while just yards away his Australian defender was having to put the result into some context for the dressing room.
Dan Agyei’s second-half goal had been a result of some dire decisions in possession, summing up a quite extraordinary 90 minutes.
“We have no excuses for that one,” Iredale told the local media.
“It is too soon to tell the reasons but from the messages we had in the changing room we just didn’t play the conditions, what the game and environment gave us and that is why we came away with that.”
More than 1,200 fans had sold out the away stand, hoping to see Bolton secure a fifth straight win and potentially put themselves back into the automatic promotion spots.
Instead, they viewed one of the Whites’ most disjointed displays in recent memory, and one they simply cannot afford to repeat when Cheltenham come to the Toughsheet Stadium in midweek.
“It is a massive journey for them to come down and support us, and our travelling fans are absolutely incredible,” Iredale said. “Having them here and dishing out that performance is not good enough, so we are already fully looking forward to Tuesday to try and fix that.
“We have to get straight back on the horse. I am fully confident we will bounce back and learn our lessons, go and put that right on Tuesday.
“There is no secret to it. We know how good we have been this season, we have set a really high standard for ourselves and we dipped below it.
“I expect us to improve – we have to, because if we play like that again we will get what we deserve.
“Cheltenham at home we are going to get back to what we do next.”
Wanderers struggled to get their possession game going on a pitch which had been covered for a few days to protect it from the frost, making for a slightly unpredictable playing surface.
Iredale was not going to make it an issue.
“I am not going to make any excuses, we are playing football in the winter in the UK, so you are going to come across different environments. We didn’t play to the conditions and that is why that happened,” he said.
Likewise, Dion Charles had two big chances either side of Agyei’s goal which would ordinarily have been meat and drink to the 17-goal top scorer.
Both missed opportunities seemed to dent confidence further.
“It is cliched but if we bury that it changes things,” Iredale said. “But Dion has scored so many goals for us this season and it’s unfortunate it didn’t happen because I felt like we needed that bit of luck just to help push us on. We were battling but we didn’t click.”
Iredale is pleased that there will be so little time to analyse the Orient defeat, with Cheltenham – who have not played a full league game since January 6 – now looking to capitalise on their misery.
“I love the fact we have so many games,” Iredale said. “We don’t just have to sit, wait and dwell on what has happened.
“We are going to figure out why it happened and then get back out there for Tuesday.
“I think we will learn a lesson.”
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