12:30pm Monday 23rd November 2009
By Marc Iles
GARY Megson criticised his players’ workrate following their derby defeat against Blackburn.
The Wanderers manager insists his team are not working hard enough as they suffered more Reebok misery against their near neighbours.
Bolton have now not beaten Rovers at home in 10 attempts and, after slumping to their fourth consecutive defeat, Megson was critical of his side’s fitness levels.
“We have ProZone and I know how far players are running, where they are running and the intensity of their running and we’re down on last year, so that’s got to be our starting point to get out of the trouble we’re in.
“We’ve got to make sure next week we start from a point of being organised, hard-working and competitive, and go on from there.
“I was disappointed today that the zip didn’t look there from minute one.”
Megson was also fuming at his team’s defending for both goals, particularly the mix-up between Jussi Jaaskelainen and Sam Rickets which saw the latter head into his own net.
“Before the first goal both teams looked similar in terms of how they were playing,” he said. “We weren’t causing them a huge amount of problems and they weren’t us.
“The first goal emboldened Blackburn and took the wind out of our sails.
“For it to go from one end to the other so quickly and for us not to get a touch on it was poor in the extreme.
“The second one was even worse.Jussi wasn’t aware Sam was going to get there, but there didn’t seem there was any need for Jussi to come out for that. It was comic cuts.”
The Bolton boss also defended his decision to take off Ricardo Gardner after home supporters booed the substitution.
“One of our problems at the moment is that two of our people who got a decent amount of goals last year are not scoring and that’s Matt Taylor and Kevin Davies.
“I got criticised for taking Bibi off but Matt Taylor looks like our best chance of scoring.
“He should have scored when he mis-kicked and he should certainly have scored with his head from a corner.
“He’s got that goal threat and we needed to keep him on the pitch.”
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