IAN Evatt has revealed the half time ultimatum he gave to Wanderers in the Papa Johns Trophy game at Tranmere Rovers.

Trailing 2-0 and looking well below par, the Whites players were asked exactly which version of the manager’s team-talk they would like to hear.

Evatt was disappointed with many aspects of Tuesday night’s performance and said his players knew they had not played up to their potential.

“At half time I asked them ‘do you want me to tell you how it really is or do you want me to sugar-coat it?’ and they said ‘no, give it us’ so I gave it them and they’re all in agreement, they knew,” he told The Bolton News.

“Second half it wasn’t down to some brilliant play, though I thought first 20 minutes we were actually very good, but it was more down to energy, intensity, speed, tempo - all of those ugly things that got us back in the game.”

Having made 10 changes, the Bolton boss accepted there could be some interruption in momentum after three straight wins in League One.

Evatt singled out of the tempo of the game as the main reason that Wanderers struggled.

“Sometimes you get lured into that because we’ve been playing so well and training so well, you get lured into that ‘we’re going to turn up here, we’re going to be able to play our football and they’re just going to allow it to happen and then we’ll come out of top because we’ve got more quality than them’.

“But it does not matter what level you play at, you have to earn the right first and foremost, you have to earn the right to play that way, and we just didn’t earn the right in the first half.”

Lloyd Isgrove missed the crucial penalty in the shoot-out but Evatt drew some encouragement from the fact his side had battled back to level the game in normal time and earn something from the game.

“It (the missed penalty) matters because we have a point less, but the most important thing is we didn’t lose the game in 90 minutes so we get a point and gain a point for that which keeps everything in our hands, which is great,” he added.