Bolton Wanderers 3 Everton FC 2 - David Prentice's verdict

EVERTON showed character. Everton showed courage. Everton showed astonishing reserves of resilience and spirit.And they also showed the defensive naivety of schoolchildren.Which is why they ended up with nothing at Bolton yesterday.Football, sadly, is like that.Bolton striker Kevin Davies pointed out, with some disgust, that Everton had snatched last minute winners at the Reebok in each of the last two seasons.This time it was Everton's turn to suffer.And the reasons were obvious.Because they have forgotten how to defend.And what's most difficult for the manager to solve is that it's not one individual who is responsible week after week.The number of simple, avoidable, easy to stop goals his side has shipped in recent weeks has been calamitous.From punts down the middle (Wolves), unmarked headers at corners (Stoke) to a whole gallery of howlers in Lisbon, they can now add three fresh failures at Bolton.There was a man left shamefully unmarked in the 18-yard box, a poorly defended free-kick from the halfway line - then a punt into the penalty area from the goalkeeper.None from the manual of impossible to stop strikes.It's hard to be too harsh, given Everton's extreme circumstances at present.

Source: Liverpool_Echo