The Bolton manager has vowed to go into the specifics of the defeat at Fratton Park, claiming that a poor performance on the South Coast did not deserve to “pass without comment” as the following encounter against Bristol Rovers approaches.
Wanderers are second, six points behind Pompey, and have back-to-back home games before Christmas to get back on track.
Evatt, on the other hand, was very disappointed that plans devised to attack weaknesses in their hosts on Monday night were abandoned so easily on the pitch.
“I can’t deal with mediocrity,” he admitted. “It eats me alive, and that was at best mediocre for us.” The players have upped the bar; they have raised their levels. I’m the first to praise them, the first to speak up and say they deserve recognition when they don’t receive it – but I’m also the first to critique them when they deserve it.
“That performance deserved to be criticised. It lacked vigour. We were controlled in the middle of the park; we had one or two moments, but it wasn’t enough. We attempted to bring in fresh legs in midfield, but this time it did not work.
“We knew the change of play would hurt them, and when we did it, it caused them problems.” Everything we had worked on over the preceding three days was thrown out the window when we were beaten up.
Wanderers’ possession work decreased as the game progressed at Pompey, with 43.2 percent of their touches taken in the Pompey half throughout the first 45 minutes reducing to 29.5 percent in the second half.
“Their opportunities came from being physical and aggressive, winning second balls, playing to the third line, being direct and roughing Rico (Ricardo Santos) up, and we didn’t respond in the right way.” “We certainly did not demonstrate what we were capable of doing in possession,” Evatt lamented.
“We were content to let the game drift, and they were content for us to play backwards and sideways, which happened far too frequently.” We did not accept enough responsibility, either personally or collectively, and this is something we must address.
“As I previously stated, we haven’t cracked it.” This is a good team capable of some really wonderful things, some pretty excellent performances, but that was nowhere near it.”
Though disappointed that the loss at Pompey ended a long immaculate run, Evatt feels his team will respond appropriately when Bristol Rovers visit the Toughsheet Stadium this Saturday.
“The game taught me something because I honestly thought we had moved past that type of performance,” he went on to say. “It’s odd that all the confidence we’d seen in the previous few weeks, and even in the first half to create the opportunity we did, drained away so quickly.”
“That needs to be looked into; we can’t let it go without comment, but I will say this about my players: whenever they’ve been asked questions or faced a challenge, they’ve always managed to respond appropriately.” That is something I expect to happen again on Saturday.”
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