IAN Evatt delivered a withering verdict on some of the members of his dressing room after their 3-1 defeat at Rotherham United.

The Bolton Wanderers boss came under fire from more than 2,000 travelling supporters at the New York Stadium on Saturday, with chants calling for him to be removed from the post filling much of the second half of the game.

Evatt defended himself after the final whistle, however, and said he believed that his players must also shoulder some of the burden for the club’s inconsistency in the first 24 games of the season.

The Bolton boss had questioned his players’ mentality after their play-off final defeat against Oxford United in May and though only five of his starting line-up was in action at Wembley, the same issues appear to be affecting results several months later.

He said: “We can’t keep recruiting players, we’ve recruited a lot of players. I just think this group are mentality fragile, focussed more on the individual than the collective. And that needs to change, they have been told that.

“They are showing it in flashes, in games, on runs, but not consistently enough, not for their level. This is a huge football club with huge ambition and a huge fanbase but that doesn’t mean to say that when you get here you’ve made it and the handbrake should go on. It should mean you want to do more.

“I am not talking about financial earnings, I am talking about earning your stripes in the game – winning trophies, winning promotions, winning games consistently. Again, for me, it’s down to wanting it.

“Everyone can speak about dreams and aspirations, all of these things, but eventually you have to wake up, get out of bed and go and earn it. And I don’t feel for the players’ aspirations and spirits that they are earning it enough.”

Wanderers paid £1.2million to bring Joel Randall in from Peterborough United and gave the midfielder an immediate debut at Rotherham.

On his performance, Evatt added: “We paid an awful lot of money for someone who we rate incredibly highly in the game. I thought today there were moments where we saw what he is going to bring.

“Obviously we need to integrate him and give him some time but he’s going to get that from playing games so it’s important we supported him and put him in. He wasn’t at fault today, no-one showed real quality.”