Bolton's Neil Lennon and Bristol City's Steve Cotterill both felt their sides deserved to win
Saturday 7 November 2015 19:53, UK
On-loan Bolton striker Shola Ameobi missed the first spot-kick of his career in a 0-0 Sky Bet Championship stalemate with Bristol City as rival managers Neil Lennon and Steve Cotterill each claimed their team deserved victory.
Ameobi's 51st-minute penalty was saved by Frank Fielding much to the dismay of Wanderers boss Lennon.
"That's two we have missed this season and as a manager there is not a lot you can do about it," said the Trotters chief after his team's third successive game without a goal.
"We spoke about penalties at Preston last week and Shola said he'd take them. But he told me after this game it was the first he'd missed in his career. That made me feel a whole lot better.
"He scored 10 out of 10 at Newcastle. This, though, was a poor attempt from him. He knows that but we won't dwell on it.
"We looked tentative and nervous in the first half but we were great in the second. After the first five minutes of the second half it was all us.
"I didn't see Bristol City causing us any problems. We had great chances to win the game, none more so than the penalty.
"Did they look like a team out there? Yes, Did they look like a team that wanted to win? Yes.
"The fans, who are absolutely brilliant at the minute, got behind them but we need that extra quality in the final third."
Lennon shrugged off reports of the club's ongoing financial problems, of possible non-playing redundancies and a potential move towards administration.
"I've known about the financial problems for a long time but not about administration," he said. "But I am going to ignore that and trust my own managerial skill to work away with what I have got."
The club also issued a statement which read: "Whilst the club acknowledges it is going through a challenging time, there have been no threats to any staff jobs in the immediate future.
"After consistent backing from owner Eddie Davies, the club continues to seek fresh investment in what is a difficult and challenging economic climate."
Bristol City boss Steve Cotterill said:"I think we deserved to win the game. We were the better team over the 90 minutes."
"Ours was a nailed on penalty and theirs wasn't," he added, referencing Mark Davies's third-minute foul on Luke Freeman. "If Neil says it was a penalty, you get the camera on his face when they got it.
"They know it wasn't a penalty. We have had three penalties given against us this season; all three are never penalties in a million years.
"But we didn't get a penalty at Brighton and didn't get one today which were nailed on.
"Having said that any constructive criticism of our lads would be we didn't take our chances when we created as many as we did in the first half.
"The game was different in the second half; Neil brought on two big strikers and went and played off them. It did become a different game though I wouldn't say it was a better game."
