JIMMY Phillips looked back at another last-minute giveaway at Cardiff and admitted: “This summed up our season!”

As brave as Wanderers had been to defend a point with 10 men for most of the second half, Peter Whittingham’s late penalty winner left them with an all-too-familiar feeling as they trudged down the tunnel.

Only Crewe Alexandra, relegated from League One, can match the 17 goals Wanderers have shipped in the final 10 minutes of games this season in the entire Football League.

Niall Maher’s red card meant the Whites had to absorb plenty of pressure, seeing just 27 per cent of possession over 90 minutes. Ben Amos saw nearly twice as much of the ball as any Bolton outfield player while the omnipresent Whittingham touched the ball more times than the whole of Phillips’ midfield put together.

Despite all that, Phillips was proud of how his side had coped, ruing a few missed chances in the second half which could have put the game to bed completely.

“We all know as experienced people in football that when you go down to 10 men that you are not going to get as much possession,” he said. “When you do create opportunities then you need to stick them away – that’s the only thing we didn’t do.

“But it wasn’t for a lack of ability. It was just one of those things, the keeper made a few good saves and Kaiyne Woolery was pulled back before he was about to shoot on a couple of occasions.

“If you wanted a game to sum up our season, I think we just saw it.

“It was great we went into the lead with a superb free kick from Zach (Clough) and it’s something we have needed to do for a while.

“If we score first in an away game it gives the team something to hold on to.

“We tried to make it as difficult as possible for Cardiff, knowing they would have a lot of possession and limit the number of clear-cut chances. I think in the second half we had the three clearest chances of the game. On another day we’d have scored to go two up.”

Phillips was busy trying to prepare Stephen Dobbie to replace Darren Pratley when Maher got his red card. The substitution never happened and it was untested Tyler Garratt who was eventually thrown on at left-back in place of the Wanderers skipper.

“Obviously there was a bit of inexperience by Niall and he didn’t need to make the challenge as high up the pitch as he did,” said the interim boss of an elbow which floored Craig Noone on the edge of his own penalty area. “He will learn from it but it changed the game.

“Having gone down to 10 men I thought the players did everything right. We defended resolutely, we stayed tight and when the ball came into the box the back four dealt with them very well.

“I don’t think Ben Amos had many saves to make in the day. A lot of cleaning up or balls running through to him but nothing I’d call a real save in the whole game.”

Poor Garratt, who had barely put a foot wrong all game, conceded the 94th-minute penalty with a trip on Noone.

Phillips said the experience would stand the 19-year-old in good stead eventually.

“Tyler did very well and I just said learn from it,” he said. “The ball was on Josh Vela’s toe and the winger had over-run it as it turned out. It’s about learning from those errors that can be so costly.

“That is the difference between the upbringing in under-21s football where there is far less emphasis on winning games.

“He did have a good game, I was pleased for him, and I am sure he will learn from it.”