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Ian Evatt said he was “shocked” by Dion Charles’s glaring miss at Portsmouth – but refused to make it the sole reason for his side crashing to defeat at Fratton Park.
Wanderers’ top scorer somehow managed to poke an effort wide from four yards out after Pompey keeper Will Norris had palmed Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s header into his path midway through the first half on Monday night.
Replays of the incident did the rounds on social media all night and Evatt admits it was a big factor in Bolton’s first defeat since early October. He insists, however, that his side should not have allowed the miss to affect them as badly as it did.
“Moments in these games change everything and you are not going to get a better chance than that,” he said. “I am shocked, we are all shocked, that he missed it. But it happens in football and you have to recover.
“They are all disappointed. We have talked and there has been a few home truths told but we just didn’t have the same energy as they did. And they were able to play with that energy because we didn’t work them with the ball enough.
“We were too safe, too direct, we didn’t want the ball in tight areas under pressure and we have to deal with that better.”
Wanderers brought Jon Dadi Bodvarsson in for his first league start since January, with Victor Adeboyejo dropping to the bench.
Evatt said the Icelander’s performance was one of the few highlights of a disappointing night.
“I thought Jon was the most positive out of anything tonight – he is the only one who can hold his head up high,” he said. “Everyone else needs to do more.”
Wanderers host Bristol Rovers on Saturday and Evatt has challenged his side to get back on to a winning run immediately to ensure they do not drop out of the top two.
He said: “It is a wake-up call and it is really disappointing that we came here and performed in that way. We are better than that.
“I thought we had moved past that, so it keep us grounded and it makes us want to work harder.”
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