Neil Lennon berated the individual errors from his side that saw Bolton Wanderers comfortably beaten by Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Goalkeeper Ben Amos conceded a penalty and was sent off after 11 minutes, before Oliver Burke scored five minutes later, leaving Wanderers with a mountain to climb.
Jamie Ward notched a third seven minutes from time, and Lennon reserved some stinging criticism for his team’s poor defending.
“Our decision-making, and picking the right decision at the right time has let us down, and it’s unacceptable,” Lennon said.
“We’ve given the ball away under no pressure, and it’s basic errors that have cost us today.
“The sending off changes everything and again it’s individual decision-making that’s cost us.
“David (Wheater) has got to get there, he’s left himself square and Jamie Ward’s beat him to the ball, he’s clean through and we’re down to ten men, a goal down.
“The second goal is really poor, we don’t stop the cross and we don’t put a challenge in, it’s really poor defending from our point of view, and it’s an uphill struggle after that.
“To be fair to the players they stuck at it for long, long periods but then tiredness kicked in in the end, and we can’t legislate for individual mistakes when we set ourselves up to be hard to beat.”
Bolton face yet another vitally important week at the Macron Stadium, as they look to finally get past Eastleigh in the FA Cup on Tuesday before the visit of fellow strugglers MK Dons.
The significance of both games was not lost on Lennon, who revealed that along with the suspended Ben Amos, Wanderers will likely be without David Wheater, who limped off after the hour mark.
“David could be out for four to six weeks if it is a hamstring injury, we’ll have to see what the prognosis is.
“Paul (Rachubka) deputised very well in goal today considering the circumstances and the fact that he hasn’t played much football, so his experience will be invaluable going forward.
“Eastleigh’s important and then we’ve got MK Dons which is a huge game, so it’s a big week coming up for us.”
Image courtesy of BWFC via YouTube, with thanks.
