Post-game quotes from the manager’s press conference following defeat at Elland Road
Neil Lennon spoke to the media following Bolton’s 2-1 defeat away at Leeds United.
Mirco Antenucci scored either side of half time to give the home side a seemingly comfortable lead, but Kaiyne Woolery’s strike reduced the deficit and set up a tense finale.
But in the end time got the better of Bolton, who slipped to the foot of the Sky Bet Championship table after other results went against them.
Below is a summary of the points covered in the manager’s post-match press conference at Elland Road.
On the game…
I felt we deserved more, but once again our problems of putting the ball in the net and finding real quality in the final third has cost us. For all of our good approach play, we weren’t clinical enough in front of goal. We had Leeds on the backfoot for the last 20 minutes but couldn’t get level. They had one shot on goal in the second half and the game probably typifies our season.
On the Leeds goals…
We conceded the opener from a set play. That’s poor from our point of view because we have been pretty good at defending set pieces recently. That was really disappointing because we ended up chasing the game. Their second goal is a wonder strike and it gave us a lot to do.
On Emile Heskey’s absence from the starting line-up…
We lost him in the warm-up. He was due to start despite a recurring hip problem. He did a light session towards the end of the week and said he felt good, but as soon as he went out he felt his hip. That wasn’t too much of an issue for us because we had a like for like replacement in Gary Madine.
On other results in the Sky Bet Championship…
Obviously they have gone against us today, but irrespective of that, we’ve got to start doing the business ourselves. If we don’t win games it’s going to catch up with us. We were hoping to close the gap today, but to lose and then see that everyone else has won is bitterly disappointing.
On the remainder of the season…
Staying in the division is getting harder with each passing game. We’ve got 11 games left and we’re probably going to need to win at least six of those games. It’s a big ask considering we’ve only won four all season, but we’ll keep going and believing we can do it.
On the players’ performance…
I can’t fault them right now because they are giving me everything. We probably don’t have enough experience out there right now given the amount of younger players we’re being forced to play.