Bolton suffered a third consecutive defeat as they lost 3-0 to Plymouth Argyle.
While not nearly as painful as Saturday, it was still a disappointing result, particularly after the start. We were 2-0 down within 15 minutes thanks to goals from Brendan Galloway and Conor Grant – the first of those showing starkly yet again how bad we are at defending set-pieces. The game was over before it really had as chance to begin and we couldn’t get anything going up front.
We had injuries and suspensions, the only slightly positive news on that front was Kieran Lee being back after missing Saturday. Amadou Bakayoko moved into the striker’s role to replace Eoin Doyle, but we struggled to link up the midfield and the attack.
It was slightly better after the break but that always feels far too easy to say, the truth is the damage was done by then. In terrible conditions in the South West, the night was capped off with a comedy third goal in injury time, as Joel Dixon was caught out and it took about three Argyle players to eventually turn the ball home, in scenes more suited to a water polo match.
The mid-table area is starting to squeeze up again – and we could do with a win against Gillingham on Saturday to get us out of this mini slump, but it should be noted that we’re still the highest placed of the promoted sides, and above the likes of Ipswich, Lincoln, Portsmouth and Charlton. It’s been a tough run of games, but this can be turned around fairly quickly. Gillingham, Portsmouth and Crewe should be on paper a slightly better run of games.