We pressed self-destruct – Bolton boss Ian Evatt far from happy after Dons loss

Bolton manager Ian Evatt was left bitterly disappointed after seeing his side “press the self-destruct button” in their 2-0 defeat at MK Dons.

Mo Eisa opened the scoring in the 17th minute and Scott Twine added a second in the 75th minute as the Dons kept up their push for automatic promotion with a third win in a row.

Bolton, meanwhile, saw their play-off hopes suffer a blow as they slipped seven points off the top six in a match where boss Evatt felt they did not help themselves at key moments.

The Wanderers boss also believes that playing eight games in a month had a big part to play in his side’s performance.

He said: “I am not happy. The first 20 minutes and a moment of madness have cost us.

“I thought we dominated the second half and then we pressed self-destruct. We are better than that.

“We were a little jaded. It’s been a long month and MK Dons are the worst team to play in the eighth game of an eight game month because they test you physically.

“I don’t think we are in any way inferior to them. We just didn’t figure out what to do in the first 20 minutes and how to press the ball, once we did that there were no dangers really.

“We were in control for the last 20 minutes of the first half.

“The second half was all us and I thought MK had gone. The fans were getting excited and we just had to score.

“We just pressed the self-destruct button then and then it was game over. We are not happy right now.”

MK Dons manager Liam Manning was proud of his players for their performance, while he believes that the tight-knit squad is one of the main reasons his side sit third in the table.

He said: “The credit goes to the players. It’s been a tough week with the travelling and the level of opposition we have played.

“I’m just so proud of the group for the way they have applied themselves and for how together they are.

“We talked about starting positively and I thought we started very well and caused them problems.

“We played some good stuff in the first 20 minutes and got the goal.

“What we have really improved at is being hard to beat and being compact in the middle.

“The group have done really well and it was nice to see us defending well from the front and attacking from the back. The lads have been terrific.

“We have spoken a lot about momentum. People forget how young we are at times, we have got a group who want to learn and want to get better.

“The group continues to deliver and improve.”