Neil Lennon fumed at his Bolton side’s failure to hold out for a point at Queen’s Park Rangers, condemning Wanderers to a seventh straight away game without a win.
Despite going 2-0 up inside 11 minutes, Bolton ended up leaving Loftus Road empty-handed, after a sickening 94th minute goal from Jay Emmanuel–Thomas.
And Lennon left his players in no doubt as to how angry he was after the game, having seen his side slip into the relegation zone just before the international break.
“We just have to see the game out,” he said.
“With 30 seconds to go, we can’t see it out; it’s just so frustrating because we’ve played ever so well today but the defending at times was poor.
“That’s why we made the change at half time, and we scored three great goals, three away from home, and I expect at least to come away with a point, and it’s just sickening.
“I feel sorry for the players, but they have to do better, they have to see things out, the game was done and we’ve given the game away.
“Up to about 30 seconds to go it would have been a great team performance away from home, so I am bewildered by it, I’m annoyed, and I’m sick of seeing it, to tell you the truth.”
Lennon offered praise for his side’s attacking performance, but made it clear that such positive intent counts for little when his team are so porous.
Having previously just scored one goal on the road, Wanderers were comparatively free-flowing on Saturday, but they have now conceded ten goals in three games since the departure of assistant manager Johan Mjallby last month.
“I still felt okay [after they got one back], I still felt we were always a threat.
“The encouraging thing is we looked good attack-wise, I thought we were the better team for large parts of the game and played the better football.
“It should have been enough, but I just can’t put it into words how annoyed, frustrated and disappointed I am with how we’re not learning.
“I don’t understand why they’re not – we’ve even gone 4-3-3 to make sure we had an extra man in midfield to cut things out – but the centre-halves didn’t deal with things as well as they should have done today.”
Image courtesy of Bolton Wanderers FC via YouTube, with thanks.
