Town boss Paul Hurst admitted his team didn’t test Bolton keeper Ben Alnwick enough during the 0-0 draw between the sides at Portman Road, despite the Trotters being a man down for 47 minutes of the match.
Marc Wilson was red-carded just before half-time but Town, still waiting for their first win of the season, were themselves reduced to 10 men late in the second half when Jon Walters suffered a calf injury with the Blues having used all their subs.
"We didn’t work their keeper enough,” Hurst said. "I said to Dean Gerken just then, did he make a save and he said no.
"From that point of view very little goalmouth action, lots of probing and pressing but certainly that lack of quality, whether it’s that final ball, an attempt at goal, a cross. I think we got in some good crossing areas but I’m not sure how many really good balls we put in the box.
"Some of the passing at times was OK to a point and then at other times things were occurring that you can only put down to confidence.
"I spoke to the players and said if I’m in any shape or form making it more difficult for them to play, please come and see me and I’ll try and take that away because it’s not a difficult place to play at in terms of our own fans getting on at the players. There are a helluva a lot worse places.
"But that is the most obvious thing I can point to, confidence. That’s the magic formula for everyone and unfortunately there’s not a definite way to go about restoring that.
"The obvious thing is to win a game of football. That does become a little bit like a chicken and egg scenario and we need that victory to at least take that away from the players and get that win. Hopefully that would instil come confidence in them.”
He says even the scruffiest most undeserved victory would give his players a lift at present.
"It would have to,” he added. "It stops the questions, it gets that monkey off the back that we’ve spoken about already.
"It’s almost at the point where I wish we’d get battered for 90 minutes and just get an own goal, that’s what it feels like at the minute.
"But today, we felt we’d got a good opportunity going into the game, then with the sending off, you think your chances are increased but it wasn’t the scenario that I thought would suit us best, and that turned out to be the case.
"And at the end it ended up being 10 v 10 for the last 15 minutes with Jon Walters going off. He hadn’t been on the pitch long enough overall to see whether [he would have made a difference]. Ironically the area he got in, which was good, is when he got the injury.”
Asked whether he is feeling the pressure with the 23rd-placed Blues having gone 10 games without a win since the beginning of the season, including the Carabao Cup defeat at Exeter, he said: "Apart from the obvious thing, the pressure you put on yourself and being without a victory, I’m very conscious of how I conduct myself and how that then reflects and comes across to the players.
"As much as I talk about being honest and genuine, I’ve been in this long enough and there are times when you have to become an actor. I’m not a very good one but at the same time you have to keep your emotions in check sometimes because I want what’s best for the players and I want that so they then go and produce.
"But in the dressing room afterwards it just feels strange because we’ve had some games here where a draw has felt like a win and today it feels more like a defeat because of the way the game played out.”
Hurst had no issue with Bolton’s wholly defensive approach following the red card: "I can’t fault them, we did it a different way when we got the point here against Aston Villa and carried a lot more threat.
"But at the same time for them to take a clean sheet and take a point from the game, you’ve just had Phil Parkinson in here and I’m sure he’s delighted with that point.”
As so often seems to be the case, Hurst admitted that the Blues found it hard against 10 men: "I can’t speak entirely for them but it certainly felt that way and probably looked that way.
"I think there’s an expectation to a degree. I think I spoke about that yesterday after a really positive second half on Tuesday night coming into this game thinking, ‘This is going to be the one’.
"But the sending off, like I said, it wasn’t the scenario that I think suited us today. Some people won’t want to even contemplate understanding that but I have been a player, been in that scenario, both sides of it.
"We did it a different way against Aston Villa. I wanted us to still carry a lot more of a threat and not worry maybe quite as much about just being defensive and inviting play on.
"There’s different ways to do it, I guess we both got the same result. But it was a frustrating afternoon, that’s the overriding emotion.
"A clean sheet, the first one, which I’m very grateful for and we’ve got to try and build on that, certainly defensively, but at the same time the opportunity was certainly there to work the keeper more than we did.”
He says the players to great extent did what he asked of them: "Yes, large parts. At times the wingers were a little bit impatient and coming inside a little bit too quick rather than holding their width a little bit more.
"Overall, I think the midfield players were doing what we wanted, they picked up some nice areas.
"For instance, Jon Nolan, 100 per cent hasn’t had his best game in terms of his quality on the ball, but in terms of getting in some good areas he was still the one that was picking up those areas really nicely, being where we wanted him.
"But on the day, whether it’s his touch, his pass, whatever it is has not been there and probably epitomised us overall.
"The temptation when you go against 10 men is just to chuck two people up front, and even in the short time after Jon Walters had come on, I thought we lost our way slightly in terms of picking the ball and getting into nice areas.
"Again, there are different ways to win a game and that was the reason for changing it and taking off a defensive midfield player and having the two others in advance, trying to force their two midfield players back, getting in between and behind their midfield.”
Reflecting on the approach to take with the players in the week ahead prior to the game at Birmingham next Saturday, he said: "I genuinely don’t believe they need a rocket. Again, people might say that would be the old-fashioned way, the easy thing, to take your frustrations out on the players.
"But unless they are fooling me, I don’t believe they’re not trying. I know for a fact that they don’t mean to get the ball and pass it to the opposition or to the side, so I don’t particularly see any value [in that] and I would suggest most people will agree, whether it’s running them, whether it’s shouting at them, bollocking them.
"It’s more about trying to show bits that we can get better at. I smiled because someone said something about breeding confidence into them, but that’s the most difficult thing to do.
"I can massage egos, I can tell them they’re good players, I’ve already done that. It’s when that whistle goes and you’re confronted in situations and how you can adapt to it more than anything, so that’s something that I think a victory or an absolutely individual performance for an individual are the only ways you’re probably going to come through that.”
Hurst says switching Trevoh Chalobah for Tayo Edun at half-time was purely tactical: "We changed the midfield rather than having a two and a one, we went to a one and two to try and cause [them problems].
"They’d gone 4-4-1, the two central midfield players, we’d either push them back or or get in behind them and try and draw a centre-half out.
"Once or twice I could see that situation evolving but once we got into those areas we then couldn’t find that next pass to really cause Bolton enough problems.”
Bolton manager Phil Parkinson was delighted with his team’s defending and particularly keeper Ben Alnwick.
"Very pleased with the point, I thought the sending off was harsh. I thought it at the time and I’ve seen it back again and there’s minimal if any contact,” he said.
"I think if you take everything into consideration, we’ve had a day less rest than Ipswich, we had a long trip down yesterday and we were down to 10 men, and if you add all those things together it’s a performance of real character for us.
"And probably the standout moment in the game was Ben Alnwick’s magnificent save [from Luke Chambers] and it was one of those moments where both sets of supporters clapped it, there was spontaneous applause.
"It was a brilliant save, but his all-round performance was good in that he didn’t have many saves to make today, but in terms of his coming for crosses and his accuracy with his kicking, which was important today when we were down to 10 men. It was accomplished performance but topped off by a great save.”