IT'S disappointing that for the second time this season I have felt we were the better side first half and that we were the ones who were pressing - and got nothing.

We've got a great capacity for conceding the first goal, when things are going well, and making life difficult for ourselves.

We started the game well, got behind them and got in a couple of shots but we let them come through us in midfield, where we weren't strong enough, and found ourselves 1-0 down with a mountain to climb. The second goal we gave away was a joke.

In the second half we hit the crossbar and had quite a few opportunities; all they had were the two goals and a header in the first half - I can't remember any more than that - but they took their chances. They showed a little bit more devilment to get into the box and we didn't show that.

There shouldn't have been any anxiety in our play because football doesn't get any better than it did in the first half: the sun was out, the grass was green - perfect - they had a 17,000 crowd all willing them on, all wanting them to do well and they just didn't grasp the nettle. At times it looked like a testimonial match in the middle of the park. If Derek McInnes doesn't tackle, nobody does. He's come in and he looks like Norman Hunter in the middle of the park!

We have been working, believe it or not, on our shape but it's not happening out there. They came straight through us for the first goal because McInnes couldn't get a tackle in and nobody else could - and we didn't touch the ball again. It was a well-worked goal from Bolton's point of view but you ask yourself 'Where were the rest of the players?'

Finishing with three up front caused the opposition problems but it caused us problems too because the pitch became a lot bigger and we got stretched. We've got Bob Taylor on the bench and two exciting young players on the pitch and we've got to find a system that suits them without cocking everybody else up.

Towards the end Bolton were quite content to let us have the ball. We caused them one or two problems but couldn't make it count.

I think they slung Dean Holdsworth on when they did just to get him into it. He's got to play some time and I thought he played quite well when he came on.

Bolton have set off okay. They've had two good results and they've got a lot of experienced players and a lot of quality players from the time they were in the Premiership so I would expect them to do okay.