Neil Lennon praised the resilience of his players in difficult circumstances after his Bolton Wanderers side came from a goal down to gain a point at home to Brentford.
Neil Danns’ second-half strike cancelled out John Swift’s early goal to gain a deserved point, only a few hours after it was revealed that his players have not yet been paid this month.
And Lennon, despite seeing his side stretch their run to one win in 18 games, was full of admiration for the attitude of everyone at the Macron, from the terraces down to the pitch.
“I’m disappointed not to have won it, but happy that we reacted very very well to going a goal down – under the circumstances I don’t think we could have asked much more of the players,” he said.
“We know we lack quality in certain areas at times, but their attitude was fantastic.
“We’re going through adversity at the moment, and we’ve got our backs to the wall – the strength of the club through this adversity will be the supporters and the players and we need them united.
“They were united tonight – they are the most important people at the football club regardless of what anyone else does.
“We didn’t look like a team that are bottom of the league tonight, and I’ve said that for quite a while, but the reality is we are, and we will keep working to get out of the position we find ourselves in.”
When Bolton went behind early on, the Macron faithful could have been forgiven for losing hope, but the Whites rallied with a strong second-half performance.
Max Clayton came off with an injury in the first half, but 33-year-old Danns stepped up to provide the attacking threat and bounce back from a poor run of form.
“Our reaction was good – unfortunately we’ve lost Max, we don’t know how serious it is but it’s a hamstring of some sort, but second half I thought we were excellent.
“Neil Danns hasn’t been at his best for a couple of weeks but he was more like himself tonight.
“He’s capable of doing that now, that’s three outside the box he’s scored this season, and it was no more than we deserved.”
Image courtesy of BWFC via YouTube, with thanks.
