A CRESTFALLEN David Moyes was left ruing the defensive errors which made yesterday’s 3-2 defeat at Bolton Wanderers an uphill struggle.
The Reebok Stadium side established a two-goal lead inside half an hour after slack marking from the Everton back four gave Gary Megson’s men simple chances on goal.
Lee Chung-Young fired home from close range on 16 minutes after being left unmarked at the back post before Gary Cahill rose highest to meet Matt Taylor’s whipped free-kick.
Everton had been warned of Bolton’s aerial threat as early as the first minute but failed to take heed of the near misses.
Though his side mustered a revival which got them back level just after the break when Marouane Fellaini slammed home, Moyes saw his men fail to deal with a routine cross into the area with minutes remaining which allowed substitute Ivan Klasnic to fire in the winner for Bolton.
Moyes said: “I thought it looked as if we had come back, and it was a long way back from two goals down. We deserved to get back in it
and I thought we had done enough but we looked like we ran out of steam with 20 minutes to go.
“We could not really make any changes, but we will not use that as an excuse, we should never have been 2-0 down, we should never have got ourselves in that situation but we did do.
“What did I say to the lads at half-time? Just to go on and win the game, I thought it was there for us. We got it back to 2-1 and I thought we were in the ascendancy in periods and I thought if we could do the same then we would get the second goal, which we did do.”
Lucas Neill laid on the passes for both of Everton’s goals and though manager Moyes praised the display of his final signing of the summer, he was quick to point out the Australian was part of a back four culpable for shipping three goals.
Moyes added: “I thought he (Neill) had a good game today, he was involved in both the goals but he was also part of a back four that conceded three.”
Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga was replaced with 10 minutes to go by Seamus Coleman, but Moyes was unsure as to the extent of his injury and says club doctors will assess his fitness at Finch Farm today.
The Everton manager was also unable to confirm if any of his injured stars, including Leighton Baines, Steven Pienaar and Yakubu, will be available for tomorrow night’s Carling Cup match at Tottenham Hotspur.
