Gary Megson blamed poor defending and a lack of quality in possession as the reason behind Wanderers' 2-0 defeat at Stoke City.

The Bolton boss felt that his teams equalled the Potters' work rate, but whenever they got hold of the ball, they didn't create enough to come away from the Britannia Stadium with anything to show for the efforts.

Megson acknowledged that this was always going to be a tough test for Bolton, but he was ultimately left disappointed that Wanderers weren't able to build on their previous two home victories against West Ham and Newcastle.

Speaking after the 2-0 reverse, Megson said: "I thought we started okay, but then we gave them a goal that had to be seen to be believed. Most of the time when the first goal goes in, it completely changes the game at the level that we are at.

"I thought we had more possession tonight than ordinarily we do have but we weren't good enough with it. We didn't compete enough with Stoke when they were putting balls into the box.

"We knew that the crowd would be intimidating and we knew that it would put everybody under pressure. I thought initially that we dealt okay with Rory's longs throws and the balls up to Sidibe, looking for the flick-ons and we got a lot of the ball, but we didn't do well enough when we were in possession. Consequently, you are not going to win enough games that you need to win.

"We've just won our last two games at home and I really thought that if we had gone out in tonight's game like we had done in those two, then we had a great chance of getting a result, but we've chucked it away.

"I don't want to be disrespectful to Stoke because this is a difficult place to come. They have had some really good results - I think they have drawn with Liverpool and turned Arsenal over.

"I know this place quite well and I spoke to the players before the game and told them that this would a game that they would be up for and that we had to match that. We did do, but when we got on the ball, we weren't sharp enough and didn't have enough penetration.

"At this stage of the season it's not about the chances that you create - we didn't have all eleven players performing like I know they can perform."