WANDERERS won’t be allowed to mope after their promotion push hit a speedbump at Grimsby Town.

Ian Evatt is not reading too much into a below-part performance at Blundell Park, where his side lost only their second game since the start of February.

After falling behind early on to Jay Matete’s low drive, both sides spurned a host of opportunities, with James Hanson also hitting the crossbar for the Mariners.

Ira Jackson Jnr made the points safe with four minutes remaining – with Shaun Miller pulling a goal back deep into injury time.

Evatt refuses to be too downbeat after seeing some positives in his side’s display.

“If that is our bad day at the office then we don’t have too much to worry about,” he said. “We have still created a hell of a lot.

“We played some very good football at times on a poor surface so if that is what Bolton Wanderers’ off-days look like from now on then hopefully we’re not going to get too down about it.

“We never like losing games. We want to win consistently - which we have done - and if we can’t win then we draw. Both teams had chances today but we had more and better chances and yet we’ve lost the game.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’ll regroup and we’ll go again on Tuesday.”

Grimsby had won just once in their previous 21 games but had shown signs of improvement under Paul Hurst, earning draws against the likes of Salford City and Cheltenham in recent weeks.

Asked if Wanderers were surprised by their hosts’ effectiveness, Evatt added: “They shouldn’t be because all the messages they were saying before the game was they knew what was coming.

“I just feel like we started on the back foot. They started very physically and the front two are a handful for everyone. But again, as a team we can’t keep relying on the back four to keep clean sheets all of the time.

“Teams are allowed to score against you, but the number of opportunities we are creating at the other end, we have to take them because it makes our defenders’ lives easier and then they have got some margin for error.

“At the moment we’re giving them no margin for error, which isn’t right.”

Asked if he was disappointed by the manner of the goals conceded, Evatt refused to pin too much of the blame on a back four which has been hugely consistent in the club’s fine run.

“I am probably disappointed with the first one because it was just one long ball up, we didn’t defend it well enough and then we’ve not tracked any runners, especially in the first minute of the game we have to be better than that,” he said. “To be honest, the second one, it was just one of those days where a cross comes in and fell to them in the box and that’s where Matt (Gilks) is having to make saves.

“Whereas at the other end, we are trying to pick people out and we are not getting the bounce of the ball or are making poor decisions. I never like conceding goals but we can’t be too harsh on our defenders and Gillo because he’s been magnificent today and our defenders have been of late.

“They’re a big part of why we’ve been winning games. We have to take responsibility at the other end of the pitch and make sure we’re putting away our chances.”