Bolton Wanderers boss Steven Schumacher on Reading draw

Schumacher again found himself ruing missed chances after Andre Garcia’s deflected equaliser six minutes from time.

There was plenty about the performance that pleased the head coach but Bolton ultimately “shot ourselves in the foot”.

“Disappointed not to win the game. We felt as though, again, we played well enough and did a lot of good stuff,” Schumacher said after the final whistle.

“We controlled it for 80 minutes out of the 90 and then shot ourselves in the foot by not being clinical enough.

“We didn’t hit the target enough from all the good play and from their first or second shot on target, they get a bit of good fortune that costs us two vital points so really disappointed with it.”

He added: “It is very rare in a game of football that you control a whole 90 minutes. The opposition is going to have a spell - it might be the first 10 minutes, it could be the last 10 minutes.

“But when you are so dominant and in so much control, you’ve got to score. We got into some good areas, I don't know how many crosses we put in.

“We created some chances, big shooting opportunities. We had a free kick in the D that we don't hit the target with, and that is just frustrating. The keeper has got to make a save at least.”

Schumacher opted to make four changes from the draw at Barnsley last weekend, with Jordi Osei-Tutu, Chris Forino, Ethan Erhahon and Ibrahim Cissoko coming into the side.

Skipper Eoin Toal dropped to the bench and the boss explained why he left out the Northern Irish defender.

“Toaly is obviously somebody who had a lot of injury problems last year. He played all the games and then got a real bad hamstring injury and he was put straight back in,” he recalled.

“We just feel at this stage of the season, it’s so important to look after him because he is a good player and we can't tire him out and risk him getting injured again.

“That was why Chris was selected instead of him and I thought, again, we defended really well. We have limited them to virtually nothing.

“So I'm not worried about the changes. I thought the performance was good enough regardless of who played.”

Sam Dalby made his debut off the bench following his recovery from a hamstring injury. Thierry Gale, Josh Sheehan and John McAtee were also introduced for the final stages.

When asked about the changes, Schumacher replied: “We were in control of the game but I could just sense that Reading had made their subs, they had a little bit of energy.

“We stopped passing the ball, we went a little bit too direct probably and stopped making angles.

“We just said, ‘Let's try and get some energy on there so we can start getting back in control of the possession’. But it didn't happen.

“[Cissoko] obviously hasn't played a lot of football, he was always going to come off on the 60-70 minute mark anyway.

“We just needed a bit more control so Sam Dalby was brought on to try and get a hold of the ball for us if we did have to go long, because Mason played 90 minutes on Saturday.

“Then Macca and Josh to give us a bit of control, but we didn't manage to do that. We became scrappy and then once they scored, we got going again and started passing the ball again which was frustrating.”

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