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Ricardo Santos held up his hands after Saturday's dire 2-0 defeat to Exeter City to admit: “We just weren’t good enough!”
The Bolton Wanderers captain refused to use injury and fitness issues in the squad as a reason for the club sitting 18th in the table after four games.
Scott Arfield (hamstring) and Eoin Toal (glute) are the latest absentees in a group which has struggled to get fully up to speed all summer.
Manager Ian Evatt has argued that some “context” must be given to the poor start, as his players slowly return to their best shape, warning that it could be the next international break in October by the time they are fully ready.
Santos felt the team had to take responsibility for under-performing against Exeter.
He said: “I think some people might look tired but it still wasn’t good enough.
“Personally, if we are at our best, I think we have too much for Exeter. But we didn’t show it and lost the game. I don’t want to make excuses about fitness. To a man, we were not good enough.
“It was too flat. I felt like we were in control, Nathan (Baxter) hasn’t had a shot to save but we have lost a game 2-0, which baffles me. We are at home, we shouldn’t be losing games like that.
“It wasn’t down to how Exeter played, it was all us. We need to learn sometimes when games are not going our way how to grind out a result. We kicked on a bit too late after the goal, still had some decent chances, but it was too late, they got numbers back.
“It is disappointing, but this international break comes at the right time, we can reset, look over what we need to improve.”
Wanderers put only three of their 19 shots on target – the clearest chance falling to Aaron Collins at 2-0, which bounced off the crossbar.
Despite having a good 40 minutes to get back into the game at two down, Santos admits Bolton lacked the required composure.
He said: “We had some decent chances – Collo (Collins) had a good one, I think it was about the 50th minute. You can’t score every one of them and maybe had that gone in, we get back in the game. But it didn’t go in, we tried, but it wouldn’t go in.
“We tried to raise the tempo and get bodies forward but at that point they are the away side, they get people behind the ball, and they make it difficult.”
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