A bitterly disappointed Gary Megson felt that Bolton were handed a bit of rough justice at the Emirates Stadium.

The Wanderers boss admitted that he couldn't fault his players' attitude and commitment during the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.

For almost the entirety of the contest, Bolton were more than equal to what the Gunners threw at them until Niklas Bendtner popped up with a far post finish to nick the decisive goal for his team on 83 minutes.

"I've just said to the players that I would rather play awful and win the game," explained Megson.

"We'd love to be getting something from it, but if there is a way to play and you don't get a point then that was certainly it.

"The effort and honesty, and at times the quality, was top class and I'm bitterly disappointed not with them, but for them.

"The game in terms of possession wasn't really a contest. We didn't want to go chasing the ball around the pitch, we wanted to keep ourselves solid."

The Wanderers manager was only able to name four substitutes out of a possible seven due to injuries and suspensions.

With Johan Elmander and Gavin McCann set to be added to the casualty list, Megson is hoping that his squad will be boosted by the return of some of the absent players for the visit of Manchester United next weekend.

He said: "People have known from the outset that we've only got 18 professionals when everybody is fit and we had eight of them missing.

"Johan has had to come off halfway through the first half, Gavin McCann has unfortunately broken his toe so we have really got our backs to the wall.

"Hopefully next week Gretar will come back and Nicky Hunt is over his problems and we'd like to see Gary Cahill being available again."

It was a big afternoon for Chris Basham, who made his first start for Bolton Wanderers.

Megson was delighted with youngster's performance at right-back and revealed that he had no concerns in naming him in the starting line-up for such a tough fixture.

"His attitude is first class and as a person he is first class. We found that with Gretar missing through suspension, Nicky Hunt would have played.

"Nicky felt this thigh on Thursday and so we could have chopped and changed and played other people, but we knew that if we threw Chris in then he'll certainly have the right attitude.

"He's done really well and I'm so pleased for him, but I'm disappointed that he can't turn round in the future and say that he made his debut at the Emirates and we got something from the game."