GETHIN Jones admits accusations that Wanderers have failed to deliver in the big games are painfully accurate.
After coming up short in the play-off final against Oxford United, Bolton are now piecing together a plan for their next assault on League One.
Though Ian Evatt’s side spent just four weeks outside the top four this season, their record against their direct promotion rivals cost them their ultimate target.
Not including the play-offs, Bolton won just two of 10 games against the top six, averaging 1.2 points per outing, bettered by both Derby County (1.4) and Portsmouth (2.20).
Concerns over the team’s ‘big game mentality’ were only amplified with the disappointment at Wembley, and vice-captain Jones says the players can give little argument to the evidence against them.
“We said to each other after the game, I don’t know if it is a mentality issue, but I have been here now for four years and I can think of only a few times where we have really come up with a performance when the pressure was really on,” he told The Bolton News.
“Crawley, Papa Johns final last year, Blackpool, Derby – they are the sort of games you need to win, but other than those it has been poor. And 100 per cent the criticism we have had is fair on that, we just haven’t come up to standard in the big games. Collectively, we have to be better than that, we can’t drop that many points and expect to get promotion.”
Jones believes the core of the squad which was 90 minutes away from the Championship can recover and rebuild to go one better next season.
“The most important thing is that we look at ourselves and what more we can all do, it can’t be a case of pointing fingers and blaming each other,” he said.
“Every game you lose, people tend to point their finger at a certain player. And we do it as players as well, we’re no better.
“But to a man, not one of us played to our best (at Wembley). Every one of us has more to give than that and, honestly, I don’t think any of us can tell you why we didn’t do it on the day.
“As for what changes, we will see what happens in the future.”
Jones, alongside Ricardo Santos and George Thomason, has turned out in every season under Evatt, each seeing an improvement in the league position.
Summing up the personal disappointment of missing out on promotion, the former Everton defender said: “This club has done everything for me, and it has been a platform for me to keep going again.
“After signing in League Two it was a massive dream of mine to help this club into League One and then to the Championship. To miss out on that, I am just devastated, it is hard to put into words just how bad I feel.”
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