The Bolton Wanderers manager Dougie Freedman has said that he is extremely satisfied with the performance of his players despite being defeated by Everton in the fourth round of the FA Cup. It took a last-minute goal from the Premier league club to beat Bolton as they put in a great performance.
The late goal from John Heitinga was enough to send the toffees into the last 16 stage of the competition. Even though Bolton have been knocked out, Freedman has said that the players can take plenty of positives from the match. Steven Pienaar opened the scoring for Everton after just 18 min on the clock.
However, Bolton managed to get back into the encounter through a goal from Sordell a few minutes later. It stayed that way until the 90th minute when the defender John Heitinga scored. The defeat means that Bolton have managed just one victory in the last five matches. As a result, they have slipped into the 16th position of the Championship table. The manager Freedman, though, sees positives from the encounter. He has said that his team created a number of opportunities and they also defended very well. He cannot wait to produce the same performance in the league campaign as well.
“Looking at the game, I thought we performed very well but we’re obviously disappointed with the end result. We’re showing signs that we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve shown that we’re able to match some of the top teams, the key for us is to now do that on a consistent basis. We were maybe a little bit nervous in the opening ten or so minutes, but once we settled I thought we were fantastic. The end result is difficult to take and I feel for our fans, whose backing was magnificent today,” said Freedman.