bwfc.co.uk rounds up manger, player and local press post-match reaction following Wanderers' EFL Cup exit
Wanderers exited the EFL Cup after an extra-time defeat at the hands of Blackpool on Tuesday night. Rounding up the managers, players and local press' post-match reaction alike, bwfc.co.uk offers the final word on the match...
Bolton Wanderers suffered a first round EFL Cup extra-time exit at the hands of Blackpool on Tuesday night.
Jamie Proctor headed the Whites ahead right on the stroke of half-time, only for Blackpool to turn the game on its head against the run of play courtesy of two goals in quick-succession from Kelvin Mellor and Brad Potts.
Having hit the crossbar in the first half, Alex Finney was again denied by the woodwork as Bolton went in search of an equaliser before substitute Kaiyne Woolery rounded goalkeeper Sam Slocombe to level the scores in second half stoppage-time.
But with Trotters chances limited in extra-time, goals from Jim McAlister and John Herron saw Wanderers suffer a premature exit.
We're disappointed but there was a lot of good stuff out there tonight. There was a lot of effort and a lot of commitment. We played some good football. We switched the play terrifically well and got in some fantastic crossing positions.
But when you have that much possession you’ve got to make it count, and we were unable to do that. That affected us a little bit and we got a bit complacent with our defending.
We had a period in the second half when we really pinned Blackpool in. We had to kill them off and had chances to do that, but were unable to get that decisive second goal.
Then we’ve switched off for a five-minute period and that is the only spell in that second half when Blackpool really threatened.
When you don’t score, you’ve got to stay strong and resolute as a team and make sure you win the game. In that period when we let crosses came in too easily was very costly.
The play around the box was exciting but at times we tried to score the perfect goal. We’ve got to pull the trigger quicker and we’ve got to get a better ratio of shots hitting the target, but we’ll get there.
How Lawrie Wilson saw it...
I think if you look at the game, you’d see the scoreline and think that we’d been beaten well. I don’t think the scoreline really reflects what happened in the game though – we had some very good spells and it was just a lack of concentration in five minutes where we conceded two very sloppy goals.
We said before the game that we'd see what we're made of as a group tonight because we had to make several changes and we changed the shape as well, we only did one session with it yesterday.
Full credit to the players, I can't praise them enough for what they've done tonight and how they've gone about it, against a very good Bolton team.
It's important that they enjoy this moment but very quickly get focused for Morecambe on Saturday.
We put in a good team performance. Everyone who played a part deserves credit and the main thing was to go through.
With the game in the palm of their hands at Bloomfield Road after Jamie Proctor’s first-half header, the Whites conspired to concede two goals in four minutes and throw this EFL Cup tie away.
Kaiyne Woolery forced extra time after latching on to a defensive mistake but Jamie McAllister and John Herron scored in the added 30 minutes to ensure the Whites’ amazing hoodoo continued on this ground.