STEVEN Schumacher admitted that a topsy-turvy defeat against Luton Town summed up a season where Wanderers have regularly felt short-changed.
The Bolton boss was pleased enough with his side’s performance against the Hatters, who missed out on the play-offs by virtue of a late goal for Stevenage.
Wanderers, who dropped to fifth and will face Bradford City next weekend, missed a host of chances in the second half to secure a win that would have ensured a third-placed finish, and home advantage in the second leg of the semi-final.
“I’m disappointed to lose the game, especially in that manner,” Schumacher said. “We've scored a load of late goals ourselves to get victories and draws and whatever, but today we're on the other side of it, so we've got to take it on the chin.
“The game should have been over. At 2-1 we probably had two or three big chances to get the third goal and kill it, but we didn't, so we were punished. Again, I thought the goals that we conceded weren't great, they were sloppy.
“The performance was good. We had 24 shots and 12 on target, controlled possession, in general it was all good but, again, it’s both boxes.”
“We didn't do enough with our big chances that we had, especially when we were ahead. The response to come back from behind for the opening goal was really good.
“I don't know how long it was, but it felt like it was a quick response. I thought both teams started the game quite lively, you could see it was a quality game.
“The way we played was good, created a lot, but disappointed from a corner goal, that was a bit too easy to go in the way it did.
“The last goal, I'll have to watch it back again and see exactly how it got to there, but it didn't seem great.”
Only Mansfield Town had beaten Wanderers at home this season but after fighting back from a controversial Jordan Clark penalty to lead 2-1 through Jordi Osei-Tutu and Ibrahim Cissoko, Hakeem Oddofin levelled the game and sub Shayden Morris nudged a stoppage time winner for Jack Wilshere’s side, whose joy was cut short with news of Stevenage’s result against Wigan.
“We wanted a good result,” Schumacher said. “As I said, the performance was good.
“We wanted to get the result and continue that unbeaten record that we had at home. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We have to take it on the chin.
“We've been on the right side of those last-minute deciders, but today we weren't.
“We didn't take our chances when we had them. At 2-1, there were probably two or three big moments on breakaways and counter-attacks where we crossed the ball.
“Even at 2-2, I think we had a couple of chances to win it, and just didn't. The final ball wasn't good. The final finish wasn't good enough, so that's probably it.”
Though Wanderers beat Bradford in the Vertu Trophy both games in the league have ended as a draw, the most recent being at Valley Parade just last weekend.
“We have had three games against Bradford this season,” Schumacher said. “They've all been good games.
“Last weekend's game up there against them was a high-quality one, really competitive, so we expect nothing different to come next Saturday.”
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