Defender offers his assessment of Wanderers' narrow defeat to Brighton
Speaking following Wanderers’ defeat to Brighton, Tim Ream reiterated the need for the Whites to use Tuesday’s Capital One Cup tie with Crewe Alexandra as a way to end their recent unfortunate run of results.Matt Mills had put the Whites ahead midway through the first half on the south coast, only for Craig Mackail-Smith to level the scores before Joao Teixeira netted a second-half winner.
Although disappointed with the reverse against Sami Hyypia’s side, Ream was clear about what Bolton need to do if they are react immediately and kick-start their season against Crewe in midweek.
“There were a few positives to take, but at the end of the day it’s all about picking up points,” said the American. “You can take all the positives you want from a game, but if you’re not picking up results or even a draw it’s tough to take.
“It’s happening right now that one or two decisions that are made on the field are costing us goals, but unfortunately that’s the way things go.
“In this league, they are always tight games and in matches like we had against Brighton, you need to be mentally strong and unfortunately at the moment we’re making decisions that are costing us.”
Ream continued: “It’s two games in a row where we’ve conceded just before half time which is frustrating – it would be a great confidence boost to go into the break with a lead, but that is something that we need to eradicate quickly.
“We’ll always look at results like this and say that we pushed them all the way, but unfortunately at this point it doesn’t really do us any favours.
“Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough and Brighton are three very good sides who will be right up there come the end of the season, but at the same time we want to be picking up points – right now, we’ve got one point from four games and we aren’t happy about that.
“We always want to do well in the cup and get back to winning ways like we did against Bury a few weeks ago, so without a doubt we'll put out a strong side on Tuesday, go to Crewe and hopefully get a result to kick on next weekend at Leeds.”