Bolton boss Ian Evatt lambasted his side for failing to take responsibility as Wanderers let slip an early lead to lose 2-1 at Walsall

Eoin Doyle’s sixth goal in as many games gave Bolton the perfect start as he crashed home Nathan Delfouneso’s cross from close range.

But Elijah Adebayo’s header brought Walsall level on the stroke of half-time – as Bolton appealed in vain for a foul in the build-up – and Rory Holden’s 20-yard rocket of a free-kick won it for the hosts.

Wanderers later hit the post through Antoni Sarcevic’s overhead kick but Evatt fumed: “We should be out of sight in the first half, the game should be over, dead and buried.

“We cause our own problems. We don’t learn our lessons. We are screaming for a foul – it might be a free-kick, it might not, I don’t know. But you still have to defend the box, defend crosses.

“That completely changed the whole momentum of the game. We have completely dominated the half and come in level – they have got a head of steam up second half and we just don’t get started.

“We don’t take responsibility, we’re passing on responsibility with the ball, there’s no composure, slashing at clearances, we look jittery, panicky and we stopped playing. It’s extremely disappointing.

“We’ve gone from not looking in any trouble to losing a game. I’m not going to take any credit that we’ve played really well in the first half. We need to be better.

“January is around the corner, we can strengthen then. We need to strengthen, there’s no two ways about it.”

While Bolton slipped to successive defeats to drop to 16th in League Two, Walsall climbed to 11th after registering back-to-back victories to the delight of boss Darrell Clarke.

He said: “I don’t think there’s a question mark over whether the lads have a bit of character about them, the amount of times we’ve come from behind in games and picked up points in those situations.

“It’s always nice to score a couple of goals. We got three at Tranmere, two today and we are adding a few more goals to our game which is important.

“Bolton have obviously got good attacking players who can hurt you at any given moment so we’ve had to do a few tactical changes and go into a back five which made seeing it out a lot more comfortable.

“We were a bit unfortunate not to get the third goal in the second half which would have made it a bit more comfortable but we will take the three points.

“We’ve put back-to-back wins together now which is important and makes one or two of those draws we’ve had look a bit better.”