Bolton Wanderers' Xavier Simons plea for Rotherham clash

Having found themselves frustrated at Wycombe on Saturday – both in terms of the score-line and the time-wasting tactics employed by the home side – the midfielder wants Bolton to take control of their own destiny.

Steven Schumacher branded Wycombe’s shenanigans as “ridiculous” after the officials added just four minutes to the regulation 90 but Simons took a more even-handed view against one of his former clubs.

“It’s how they wanted to manage the game,” he shrugged. “For there to only be four minutes added on was just baffling. But it is what it is. It's football at the end of the day.

“If the shoe was on the other foot, we'd be doing the exact same. It's obviously frustrating and annoying at the time but it's in the referees' hands.

“We put ourselves into the position where they could do that to us. It all got a bit frantic.

“We had started so well and for them to score twice in quick succession before half time came as a real blow. We ended up on the back foot and chasing the game after that, trying things that we possibly might not have tried after we were comfortable, winning 1-0.”

There was frustration from the away end as referee Craig Hicks seemed reluctant to tackle Wycombe’s dawdling, especially when goalkeeper Will Norris restarted play.

Simons says the questions were being asked on the pitch too.

“I think we had the fans counting to 30 seconds at one point,” he said. “And then when he got carded there was another 30 seconds, but there is nothing you can really do. It is all in the referee’s hands.

“Of course we spoke to him and he’s the one in control at the end of the day. It was the way Wycombe decided to manage the game, so fair play to them.

“They defended the two goals they scored and they won the game, took the points. Naturally, we are frustrated but we have to learn from it and move on.”

Simons shoots for goal at Wycombe in the second half as Bolton try and punch a hole through a stubborn defence (Image: CameraSport - Andrew Kearns)

Wanderers had 15 shots on the Wycombe goal in total, only one of which was officially recorded as on target. Of those, a dozen were from inside the penalty box.

Simons accepts that the team has got to be more clinical if it is to keep itself in contention for a promotion spot in League One.

“It’s not good enough, really,” he said. “We need to be scoring more goals.

“We are creating chances but not many that you’d say are clear cut, maybe.

“I had a shot myself and I didn’t see clearly what happened. There was a big moan from the crowd, so it went close, but this was just one of those days where they got all their players behind the ball once they had taken the lead and made themselves hard to break down.

“We had 12 shots, it’s not as if we haven’t managed anything, but we probably need to make sure some of those chances are clear-cut, or that we are taking more of them.”

Defeat at Adams Park dropped Wanderers to sixth spot in the table, and they are now four points off second-placed Lincoln, who took maximum advantage of Bradford’s slip at the weekend by beating leaders Cardiff City.

Simons remains confident that there is sufficient strength in the Bolton squad to do what is expected of them and challenge for automatic promotion.

“The squad is amazing,” he said. “Everyone's fully involved and you never know who's going to start and who's going to be the one that has to be ready to get three points.

“Any of our players could start in any team in League One. Hopefully, we can keep on to them in January and add in a few more potentially and strengthen the squad and go again.”

With Wanderers in possession of the country’s longest unbeaten streak, 16 games and counting, Simons reckons confidence won’t be an issue as they look to bounce back from defeat at Wycombe.

“Long may that continue,” he said of the record, which stretches back to the home draw with Stevenage on the final day of last season. “It's a horrible place to go. I've been on the other side of that. We want to keep this home form going.

“When we do play at home, we're excited because we know that the fans are going to be on top and we like playing on our pitch. We can play the way we want to play.”