MATCH REACTION: Wanderers' 1-0 defeat at Wigan

Ian Evatt insists his Wanderers side deserved more after slipping to a 1-0 defeat at near neighbours Wigan Athletic.

Stephen Humphrys scored the only goal of the game as the Latics extended their unbeaten run against Bolton to a decade.

Wanderers put 10 shots on the Wigan goal – three on target – and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but walked away empty handed from the DW Stadium once again, missing the chance to jump above Derby County into second place in the table.

Evatt said: “I thought it was the best we have played for a long time, to be honest, and I am baffled as to how we lost the game. We controlled it, it was one team trying to win and the other one trying to survive.

“Football, as I have said before, is a really harsh industry. And I am the first one to call out the players and yesterday we had a really big meeting about how we’d performed on Saturday. It was disappointing and regardless of the refereeing decision and red card we probably got what we deserved. Tonight we didn’t get what we deserved.

“I am the first to say when we have not performed, and we performed. The only thing missing was the goal. We had chances and they just didn’t go in. Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve.

“But there isn’t a man in the stadium that can honestly say that we didn’t deserve to win that game.”

Wanderers were reeling from a 4-1 defeat at Blackpool on Saturday and, watched by more than 4,000 travelling supporters, looked the more likely team to score up until Humphrys made the breakthrough in the 69th minute with Wigan’s first shot on target.

Evatt has had few moments to savour against the Latics but maintained his team’s performance warranted more than it got.

He said: “I can understand disappointment in the end result but every time we have played against Wigan we haven’t performed. We haven’t got the result tonight and I will be the first person to apologise to the fans, who were absolutely brilliant by the way. I am proud of them.

“But this is the first time we have completely dominated against Wigan. For the last few our performances have been bitty, probably since Christmas, because we have had a lot of turbulence with injuries etc.

“I can stand here tonight and say that if we perform like that over the remaining 12 games we will be alright.”

Wigan keeper Sam Tickle made a few timely saves to keep Bolton at bay but it was not until the home side had edged ahead that Joel Coleman was forced into any meaningful action at the other end.

Bolton’s failure to turn possession into goals was a frustration on the night.

Evatt said: “It is hard when teams are sitting 11 men behind the ball – but we still created enough opportunities to score. Their keeper played well and made some good saves.

“I am extremely frustrated and apologetic to the fans because they deserved more, but so did we.

“It shows with the level of celebrations, we are a big scalp and they know they got away with one. The season isn’t over yet, there are 12 games left.”

Players and staff from both clubs clashed after the final whistle when some over-zealous celebrations from Martial Godo in front of the away end brought about a reaction.

Evatt added: “We won’t accept one of their players celebrating in front of our supporters.

“Go and celebrate with your own fans, no issue with that, but not ours.

“You certainly shouldn’t be celebrating when you are mid-table, that’s what I think.

“Good result for them, fair enough, but we are still fighting to get promoted out of this division and there are 12 big games left to make that happen.”

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Sorry but Evatt is deluded, best we've played for a long time? Keeping the ball does not win games, scoring goals does.

Norpig wrote:Sorry but Evatt is deluded, best we've played for a long time? Keeping the ball does not win games, scoring goals does.

Exactly my thoughts and comment pre-match - we don't create enough clear cut chances and aren't ruthless enough when they come along. Throw defensive errors as per yesterday and unfavourable decisions as per previous game into the mix and we're not good enough ATM having squandered our games in hand advantage.

That said, calling for Evatt's head won't help because he's recruited for his system and that severely limits the options for changing the system and for a new manager - we simply have to do what Evatt wants but do it a lot better and a lot quicker.

My thoughts were:

"It's all been said but in my mind we lost because of individual errors notably the appalling defending for their goal and the plethora of poor crosses and passes that killed dead the occasional ponderous momentum we had going forward
Tactically, I can accept that we are obsessed with possession - and something could be done about risking the ball a bit more at their end of the park to try to get it to the forwards before their defence is set - but a good start would be to put more focus on marking/tracking/defending properly.

It's ironic that our entire defence - including the goalie - seems more focused on playing the ball around and probing for attacking opportunities than ensuring we don't give away cheap goals i.e. their primary role. And the midfielders/WBs seem more focused on retaining possession than looking for the quick killer pass that sets up the strikers so invariably pass it backwards rather than risk losing possession. I don't mind if we lose it at the top end of the park well away from our goal if we're trying to create - in fact letting the opposition have the ball in their half and forcing them to be creative with it and commit players forward is possibly the only way that gaps will appear in their defence if you get my drift.

For me, we're trying to be attack-minded and to control the game, but in doing so we're giving the opposition far too much time to organise their defence and leaving ourselves wide open to the counter.

Evatt just needs to get them to move it forward quicker and take more risks with the ball in the final third - whilst the defence needs to defend instead of trying to be Beckenbauer all day long. And everyone needs to play better"