Bannan On Disappointing Debut

Midfielder Barry Bannan has talked of his disappointment at his performance and our loss on his debut for Bolton since arriving on loan from Crystal Palace.

The Scottish international joined us on deadline day from the Premiership side, and in his first outing we lost four one to Derby.

Speaking to the Official Site following the game, he admitted it was a desperately disappointing showing and he called on the team put the result behind them quickly and get the result we want on Tuesday against Fulham.

‘On the whole the performance wasn’t good enough from us, all of the lads in the dressing room are capable of a lot better than they showed today out on that pitch. I think for the first 20 minutes we were the better side, but when a wonder goal put them ahead we really let ourselves down from thereon in.’

Bannan went on to echo the thoughts of the manager as he added that he felt we went toe to toe with a very good Derby team for 40 minutes in the opening period, and in that period mainly the only thing letting us down was our attacking intent and our work in the final third of the pitch.

‘For all the possession we had, we didn’t really create enough. Up until their opener we were right in the game but from then on we know that we really should have performed better.’

Bannan went on to say that with the disruption of the double injury substitution, the players were still wanting to give it a proper go in the second period, so everyone was disappointed to see us concede again so quickly after the restart.

‘We were suddenly three down which was hard to take. You’ve got to give yourself a chance, and we didn’t really do that. We’re just really disappointed in ourselves, as we know we’re a lot better.’

With it being the 25 year old’s debut, he said on the one hand he was just delighted to have been out there playing again, and getting 90 minutes under his belt, but he knows he could’ve played better as well so he certainly wasn’t absolving himself of that, but he knows hopefully with 90 minutes under his belt and a bit more time on the training pitch with the lads now, hopefully fans will see a better performance from him in future.

Moving on to the midweek game against Fulham, Bannan says that really the players have to look at Derby as a ‘freak’ result, put it behind them and prove it was a ‘freak’ result by getting a much better at the next time of asking.

‘We’ve got two massive home games coming up, so we need to put the Derby game behind us straight away and try and get six points this coming week. That’s the great thing about football – you’re disappointed today, but you’ve got to push that aside now as there’s a game right around the corner for you to go out there and put on a performance.’