Under-fire Bolton boss Ian Evatt has demanded his players “look in the mirror” after their ragged display at Rotherham brought about a fourth defeat in seven League One games.
Some Wanderers fans called for Evatt to be sacked following their side’s 3-1 loss at New York Stadium, but the 43-year-old insisted his under-performing team should share responsibility.
“It’s about time maybe I called them out because it’s me that gets it all – and I’m OK to take it all, the first place I look is in the mirror, at myself,” Evatt told Radio Manchester.
“But some of them need to look at themselves as well.
“Sooner or later they need to take responsibility because that isn’t good enough for this club. I’m angry and frustrated at what I saw.
“We’re making it incredibly difficult for ourselves because we’re conceding awful goals and that isn’t just down to the goalkeeper and defenders – it’s a collective and, for me, a mindset thing.
“Teams that are mentally fragile and weak concede goals like that and that’s what we’ve been doing. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, their mindset’s still going to be the same – the players are still the players.”
Bolton’s defeat means they remain 10th in the table, missing an opportunity to reduce the four-point gap to the top six.
Evatt, whose side reached the League One play-off final last season before losing to Oxford, added: “We’re still making daft, erratic decisions – we have to find a way to do better.
“We were second best in every duel, every second ball, didn’t do the basics well enough, didn’t put the ball in the areas we needed to on a difficult surface. We were outrun, outbattled and out-scrapped from one to 11.”
