Evatt felt Bolton should have won despite needing last ditch equaliser

Bolton Wanderers needed an equaliser at the very death to secure a point against MK Dons in the season opener on Saturday, but manager Ian Evatt believed his side should have won the game.

More than 16,000 people watched as Alex Baptise prodded home in the 95th minute for the hosts as rescued a 3-3 draw at the University of Bolton Stadium, after goals from Mo Eisa, Scott Twine and Hiram Boateng almost got Dean Lewington his first win in charge of Dons.

Though Bolton were seconds away from losing the game though, Trotters boss Evatt felt his side were the better on the day and should in fact have won on their return to League One.

He said: “I thought we should have won the game, no two ways about that. They are a good team and the way they move the ball and how they rotate and play from the back takes intelligence from our players, when to step in, when to jump, when to press.

“I thought we got that balance spot on. They are good players so at times, they are going to break that, but we created a lot of opportunities where we’d nicked the ball in the final third and then we just didn’t really capitalise.

“We went behind, I didn’t think we deserved to be behind and it was a bad goal to concede and then got ourselves back in it with a brilliant free kick from Josh and then after that, I thought we took over. At the start of the second half, we dominated, we got the goal and then they looked a bit flat to be honest and like they were feeling a bit sorry for themselves. Then there was a free kick and a moment of quality then equalised and it was them that had the impetus and we looked a bit sorry for ourselves. They went ahead with another really poor goal to concede and then the lads showed great character to come back. It was some game.”