REMI Matthews held his hands up after Wanderers’ 3-2 win against Southend and admitted: “We need to be better than that.”

The Bolton keeper accepted his own part in a “sloppy” start to the game and that Bolton must improve defensively if they are to get anything from their Boxing Day trip to Sunderland.

“We finished the game off better,” he said. “Everyone could see we were sloppy in the first 20 minutes from me to Murph (Daryl Murphy) up top, we’ll take responsibility for that.

“We need to cut that out because better teams will punish us more. We need to stop conceding set plays – it’s what people are best at in League One, so we need to curb it.

“We got the three points and it was always going to be a tough game. We dug in deep in the second half and I think we played some good football, showed we are a good team.”

Wanderers also claimed three points after going a goal behind for the first time in 120 games, a run stretching back to March 2017.

“It’s always hard going a goal down, we’re not playing against mugs in this league,” Matthews said. “And to be so sloppy early on, the fans weren’t happy. You can’t blame them for the reaction because they want the best from us and we want the best ourselves.

“We showed something to get back and win it, though. We need to cut out those silly mistakes, conceding set plays and I think we’ll be OK.”