IAN Evatt had three words to describe Wanderers’ toothless attack against Grimsby: Not good enough.

Frustrated that his side had failed to build on their victory against Harrogate the previous weekend, Evatt questioned the “winning intent” shown in the second half at the University of Bolton Stadium.

Bolton failed to put a shot on target for the first time in his tenure.

Evatt has until Friday to improve his squad in the transfer window but with a handful of players on the comeback trail after injury he is reluctant to bring in players without just cause.

“We have got individuals who would make a difference missing – Lloyd Isgrove and Shaun Miller are injured and could have made that difference in the attacking third. We’re missing Gethin (Jones) as well,” he said.

“For whatever reason on the day it wasn’t Doyler’s (Eoin Doyle) day today and Nathan (Delfouneso)’s decision making and reliability in the final third wasn’t good enough.

“And the wing-backs’ crossing wasn’t good enough. We had enough opportunities to put the ball into good areas, we just didn’t do it.”

Evatt had planned to control possession and wear out a side that had trained for just two days since September.

There were signs in the first half that his approach was working but the intensity dropped off significantly after the restart, allowing the visitors a relatively comfortable point.

“Half time came at the wrong time for us because we were really starting to dominate,” he said. “I think physically they had started to tire and the 15 minutes enabled them to recover and have another dig at it.

“When it stays at 0-0 for so long it gives them a second wind because they have something to hang on to. If we’d have scored one goal I think they would have crumbled and we would have won the game comfortably.

“Credit to them, they haven’t trained for two weeks and there were obviously a lot of tired bodies. We knew they could probably match us for 60 minutes and then we could take over the game. We actually did that earlier but we didn’t score and that was down to poor decision-making in the final third.”