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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

'No man was more devastated' - Bolton Wanderers' Kieran Lee backed to find scoring touch

Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt has backed midfielder Kieran Lee to rediscover his goalscoring touch after missed chances against Newport County.

The former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder had two brilliant chances to open the scoring on Easter Monday against the Exiles.

Wanderers had the best chances in the first half at Rodney Parade and some of these fell to Lee, who saw a close range shot saved and nodded a header wide.

Bolton's lack of a clinical edge came back to haunt them as Nicky Maynard put the Exiles in front and ended Wanderers' 14 match unbeaten run.

The Trotters also had Alex Baptiste's header in stoppage time saved on the line as Bolton were unable to find the back of the net.

And Evatt has backed Lee to score those same opportunities should they present themselves against Harrogate Town this weekend.

Evatt said: "I think sometimes it doesn't matter if you’ve played hundreds of Championship games and you’re a really experienced player and you’ve been there, seen it and done it, like Kieran Lee has.

"Missing chances can affect you. No-one misses chances on purpose and there was no man more devastated on Monday than Kieran Lee.

"That’s just the type of player that he is, but I know put him in that position again on Saturday, I believe he’ll score - simple as that. I’ll back him to take those chances.

"Just on that day every major chance we had seemed to fall to him. I was even laughing this morning that right at the end when Baps has headed it, the ball is somehow stuck on the line spinning, and their players left it to each other and Kieran Lee went and tackled the ball back to their keeper on the line.

"It was just one of those days, it’s actually laughable. We’ve done some heading practice in training this morning which some players enjoy, some players don’t and I said to them if you’ve all got a headache now, you’ve got Kieran to thank for that headache!

"We need to practice and make sure that when we get these chances, we’re clinical.”

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