Ian Evatt believed in-form Bolton deserved a more comprehensive win after Wanderers’ fourth victory in 10 days was settled by a Jasper Moon own goal as they claimed a 1-0 League One win over Burton.
The Trotters squandered a plethora of chances to make life more comfortable.
But manager Evatt remained pleased with his team’s latest success to keep the pressure on leaders, Portsmouth.
“The scoreline makes it look as if the game was tighter than it actually was,” he said. “However, as 1-0’s go, that is as dominant as you will see.
“It is frustrating we didn’t add to our tally. It felt like we lacked a bit of zest but that’s understandable after four days in a busy period.
“I know as an ex-player how difficult it is to win these four Christmas games. There won’t be many teams in the whole pyramid who have done that.
“The first half was a bit of a pantomime with the time wasting. But we could have dealt with that a lot better.
“Everyone was frustrated. It was important we kept our head and stayed calm.
“We had a bit of luck with the goal but hard work puts you where luck will find you. I don’t think anyone will argue we didn’t deserve to win.”
Moon turned a clearance by captain John Brayford past goalkeeper Max Crocombe, whose three first-half saves kept his side in contention.
Albion almost snatched a 48th-minute lead through Bez Lubala before Moon’s misfortune, three minutes later.
After Albion’s first defeat in four games, Burton caretaker boss Gary Mills said: “The application of the boys was immense.
“We came with a game plan and we looked organised and structured. It is just a shame we couldn’t come away with at least a point.”
Despite the loss, Mills remained upbeat but insisted he still did not know how long his role would continue.
But he and his staff have been asked to conduct business now the transfer window has opened.
Of turning the temporary job into something more permanent, Mills added: “It is something I have not thought about.
“The chairman has asked us as a staff to organise and structure a team to go out and represent Burton Albion. Hopefully we are doing that.
“And if the opportunity came up, it is something I would think about.”
Regarding any moves for players this month, he said: “It is something we are working on behind the scenes.
“There will be incomings and outgoings and behind the scenes things are moving along nicely. My phone has not stopped ringing.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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