Bolton Wanderers dropped points from a winning position with a second 3-3 draw of their League One campaign, this time on the road against AFC Wimbledon.
Wanderers went behind to Will Nightingale's header, before Eoin Doyle slotted home from the penalty spot after Dons goalkeeper Nik Tzanev brought down Dapo Afolayan.
Josh Sheehan ensured Wanderers went into the break ahead, before Afolayan struck after half-time to extend Bolton's lead.
READ MORE: How Newport County helped Bolton Wanderers put in foundations for Josh Sheehan transfer move
But the hosts rallied when Ricardo Almeida Santos brought down Ayoub Assal and Aaron Pressley slotted home from the penalty spot, before Dapo Mebude levelled not long after.
Doyle appeared to have been fouled in the box before full-time, but the officials were unmoved and the spoils were shared.
Wanderers manager Ian Evatt spoke after the game and here's what he had to say just after.
Immediate reaction….
“We should have won the game. It is hard to be too harsh on them because we are still finding ourselves, our fitness. You can see the ones who carried Covid, they are suffering, and at 3-1 it should be game over.
"We had a massive chance too, so it should have been game over.
“Just the whole 90 minutes really, two minutes of absolute madness cost us the game. Fine margins in football but we’ll learn from it.”
What do you take out of that? People will talk about game management and winning 3-1 in the second half, you played some outstanding football at times?
“We were trying to manage the game. We try and manage the game by controlling possession and we were comfortable I thought at 3-1. Declan carries an injury and tries to stay on playing through the injury and then doesn't track his runner and they score at 3-2, and it gives them a huge lift.
“But then for five minutes we were mentally gone, it affected us and that can’t happen. Once it got to three all, we then regathered ourselves and looked the more likely again.
"But just composure really, just a learning curve, game management maybe, but I think there was still 20 odd minutes left. The good thing is we look like we’ve got goals in us and while we carry a goal threat, I know eventually we’ll get back to our solid selves.
"People moaned at me about 1-0 victories last year, now they’re moaning about epic games. For now, there’s a long way to go, but I think we’re a really good team.”
The big difference between last week and this week was last week, though it was 3-3, felt like a win - this psychologically feels like a defeat?
“Yeah, but we have to in the face of adversity learn our lessons and then how we learn from those and that adversity will define who we are as a team.
"For now, it’s going to hurt and it’s silent in there, they’re devastated, but for large parts of that game, we’ve done a lot of things right, so keep positive. It’s been a decent start, we know we’ve got more in the tank and we’ll keep going.”
It’s the first time in about two decades that Bolton have scored three times away from home if you go back to last season against Crawley…
“It’s just finding the balance right of keeping it tight at the other end, but we’re gutted at that, we really are.
"We probably should have had a penalty as well at one point on Doyle, it’s a hell of a penalty and then it almost cost us a goal at the other end. It’s one of those things but it’s another game unbeaten and another game where we look like we can free score so onwards and upwards.”
We’re not at that stage where you need to score four to win a game are we?
“I hope not. We’ve got very good players all over the pitch - and defenders will be disappointed with the nature of the goals we conceded. The game really should have been over at 3-1 and just by a bit of, if you want to call it game management, but if you’re carrying an injury, you can’t afford to have passengers at this levels, especially away from home in an atmosphere like this.
"You’ve got to come off, put your hand up, and get someone else on that is fit and able to do the job, but having said that, we can’t wobble like we did and concede a third, but lessons to be learned.”
