STEVEN Schumacher that the Wanderers’ “soft” centre might have lost them a chance to return to the playoffs after their loss to Wycombe.
With three games left, the Bolton manager bemoaned a sixth loss in eight games as goals from Luke Leahy and Caleb Taylor left his team in need of a small miracle to return to the top six.
The Whites were accused of having a weak mentality once more after failing to capitalise on a strong, if not spectacular, first half performance to lose the game entirely in the final 30 minutes.
After the match, a disappointed Schumacher acknowledged that his team lacked the skills necessary to defeat one of League One’s automatic promotion contenders.
“I’m just trying to achieve a result, like, and I’m not thinking about the league table and what it all means. “This team needs to figure out how to score a point,” he stated.
“Just don’t lose the game, even if you can’t play very well or if you have trouble breaking down the opposition. However, that kind of mindset has existed there for a very long time.
“I just said to the lads in the dressing room that I don’t want to label stuff at them that has been said about the group, stuff that I haven’t seen. People have called them soft for years, and I can see why, because in the moments where it’s tough, you’ve got to grind it out and dig it in and find a way to get a result, and at the moment we just can’t do that.”
Wycombe, who move a point clear of Wrexham into second spot, produced two goals in the final 30 minutes to leave their travelling supporters celebrating at the end.
“It was what we expected from the game, we expected to have all of the ball, we expected that we wouldn’t get anything clean because of how deep Wycombe defend, and we said we had to make sure we concentrate, especially from set pieces, not to give anything needless away,” Schumacher continued when asked about his thoughts on the opposition. There weren’t many surprises because it was outmuscled on the far post, which proved to be the game-deciding factor.
Joel Randall left Wanderers on the eve of the match after colliding with Klaidi Lolos during practice, and Jordi Osei-Tutu hobbled out after eighteen minutes due to a hamstring injury.
At the end, Schumacher substituted David Abimbola, a striker for the Under-18s, for his first team debut, stating that the young player’s performance was the only positive aspect of a disappointing outcome.
“We’ve already lost three straight games, had one terrible performance, and now have two home games where we need to do better. It is frustrating, though. You know we’re exhausted, of course.
“When you lose guys, the squad isn’t helpful. It doesn’t help that we have, I believe, ten injuries at this point. However, the upside was that it gave someone else a chance, and young Dave was a bright star when he made his debut.
He smashed into a few, made it hard for people to play against, which is the bare minimum, so credit to him for that.”
Asked about what had been lacking in the last couple of months as Bolton’s play-off challenge faded, Schumacher delivered another damning verdict.
“Everything, just the mentality of everything,” he said. “I think the effort’s been there, I’ve said that from day one, I don’t think the lads have ever not tried. But I just think there’s something not quite right within the group that we need to figure out.
“I don’t think Wycombe is much better than us, but they’ve managed to win, and they have all the makings of a team that can go and get promoted automatically.”
They play with a positive attitude, are reliable, don’t make mistakes, and have more firepower than we do. Thus, we must attempt to achieve that.
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