Owen Coyle admitted his Bolton side let themselves down against Stoke in the FA Cup semi-final.
Wanderers boss says Wembley defeat 'is hard to take'
Owen Coyle admitted his Bolton side let themselves down against Stoke in the FA Cup semi-final.
The Wanderers boss bemoaned his side's lack of defending in the 5-0 thumping at Wembley.
Matthew Etherington and Robert Huth had given Stoke the perfect start with two goals in seven minutes and Kenwyne Jones added a third on the half hour.
Former Bolton player Jon Walters bagged two more after half-time to seal the biggest semi-final victory since Wolves destroyed Grimsby.
Underperformed
Coyle told
Sky Sports News: "I think we underperformed on the day. All credit to Stoke City. I thought they were excellent, but for our standards we were well below them today.
"Bizarrely enough, we started the game reasonably well but we contrived to shoot ourselves in the foot by giving the ball away sloppily for the first goal and from then on Stoke were in the ascendency because goals change games, so it is hard to take.
"What we don't want is to have this impact our season because we've been terrific up to this point and they've earned their right to be here.
"We've played well below what we're capable of, but we must pick ourselves up for the final six games of the season.
"We're in a good position in the league and we want to finish strongly. It would have been nice to get to the Cup final but we passed on that opportunity today so good luck to Stoke City.
"If somebody had said to me that me team can play as badly as that, I wouldn't have believed it but it's happened.
"We just have to pick ourselves up and lick our wounds. I feel for the supporters today because they came in huge numbers and were vocal. My thought are with them because we should have performed a lot better."
