'One team trying to win, one team trying to survive' - Bolton Wanderers boss' view on Wigan Athletic loss

Unfortunately for the Wanderers chief, Stephen Humphrys' goal against the run of play saw Latics repeat their 4-0 romp at Horwich back in August - and dent his men's promotion bid.

“It was the best we have played for a long time, to be honest, and I am baffled as to how we lost the game," said Evatt.

"We controlled it...it was one team trying to win and one team trying to survive.

“Football, as I have said before, is a really harsh industry. But we didn’t get what we deserved.

“I am the first to say when we have not performed, and we performed.

"The only thing missing was the goal. We had chances, we had opportunities and, for whatever reason, they just didn’t go in. Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve in football.

“But there isn’t a man inside the stadium that can honestly say we didn’t deserve to win that game.”

Latics goalkeeper Sam Tickle almost single-handedly kept Latics in the game for the first hour, with Paris Maghoma, Eoin Toal, Nathaniel Ogbeta, Josh Sheehan all denied, and Toal also heading just over the bar.

Even after Humphrys scored, Bolton had chances to equalise, but Ricardo Santos nodded the best of them wide of the target from four yards in the dying seconds.

"It is hard when teams are sitting 11 men behind the ball, it's really tough," added Evatt. "But we still created enough opportunities to score...their goalkeeper played well and made some good saves.

“I am extremely frustrated and apologetic to the fans because they deserved more - but we deserved more as well.

“It shows with the level of celebrations, because we are a big scalp, and they know they got away with one."

The result extends Latics' stranglehold in the fixture, with Bolton's last win coming in January 2015.

“I can understand disappointment in the result, but every time we have played against Wigan we haven’t performed," acknowledged Evatt, speaking to BBC Radio Manchester.

"We haven’t got the result again, and I will be the first to apologise to the fans. But this is the first time we have completely dominated them.”