Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt described his side’s FA Cup replay defeat to Stockport County, who sit two divisions below them, as the worst performance he’s seen since he took charge.
It was an FA Cup upset for the ages as National League side County won 5-3 in extra-time at a sellout Edgeley Park to book their place in the second round of the cup.
The game looked to be Bolton’s after they scored three first half goals, two coming from calamity errors from the home side.
But the Hatters weren’t giving up, they kept pushing to create chances and scored three goals, with one coming from the penalty spot and the equaliser arriving just before full-time.
As the game headed into extra-time it was County who looked the most dangerous, they took the lead for the first time through Scott Quigley, before securing victory right at the death.
Although they went in at half-time 3-1 up, Evatt aired his frustration saying: “From minute one, even though we took the lead, we were outplayed, outfought, out-battled, out-ran. It’s not acceptable and they deserved it, credit to them.”
He explained how his team failed to get the basics right: “We can concentrate on pass detail, rotation, technical positions, playing out from the back and all that nonsense. You have to run and fight and scrap and tonight we didn’t do that well enough.”
Next up for Bolton is a tough away trip to Wycombe Wanderers who are one of the favourites to gain promotion in League One this season.
Focusing on that game he said: “We haven’t got time to sulk to worry and overthink, we just need to be better and that starts on Saturday with a very, very tough away fixture.”
