Ian Evatt claimed his Bolton side looked fearful after a goalless draw at Stevenage left them six points adrift of the League One automatic promotion places.

Both sides had their chances to snatch a win, with Will Forrester smacking the crossbar for Wanderers in the first half and Boro’s Ben Thompson slipping late on when he looked set to punish Ricardo Santos’ sloppy pass.

The stalemate saw Wanderers slip further away from the automatic spots with six games remaining and Bolton manager Evatt was left concerned at how tentative his team were at Stevenage.

“We looked a fearful team,” he said.

“I thought we looked like we were afraid to lose and the type of team we want to be is fearless and forward-thinking.

“It had a feeling that it was ours to lose but at the minute it isn’t ours to lose, it is somebody else’s. There is no given right but it was an important point.”

As the season approaches its climax, Evatt is aware that the margin for error gets slimmer even though they have a game in hand on second-place Derby, with Reading next up on Monday.

He added: “These players are playing under huge pressure.

“We want to leave the excuses and go out and perform and it felt like we were petrified of giving something away.

“There is an opportunity and it is still wide open, we have to be the fearless team I want us to be.”

Stevenage forced Bolton into errors and Thompson had an opportunity to snatch victory after Jordan Roberts intercepted Santos’ pass, but the midfielder lost his footing as he shot.

The point meant that Stevenage’s winless run extended to six games, but Steve Evans is keen for his side to live in the moment as they fight Oxford and Lincoln for the last play-off spot.

Evans said: “We had the difficult game of the weekend. We had Bolton Wanderers. I thought Lincoln would win and they did, and I thought Oxford United would win at Shrewsbury (they drew).

“We head to the Valley and if someone said to me four weeks ago, four months ago, two years ago, Stevenage are going to go to Charlton on Easter Monday and are fighting for the play-offs in League One, it wouldn’t be thinkable.

“We are here on merit, we have good players. You can see how our club is run compared to other clubs in this league.

“So, from our point of view, we have a fantastic structure, we are in a fantastic place and we are really embracing every minute of this.”

Steve Evans insisted Stevenage should have been awarded two penalties in their 1-0 defeat against relegation-threatened Reading at The Lamex Stadium.

The hosts controlled the first half but the Royals went into the break ahead thanks to an own-goal from Bradford loanee Vadaine Oliver.

It was a different story after half-time as Reading edged a closely fought encounter to secure just their second away win in the league this season.

The Boro had two penalty appeals waved away by referee Paul Howard and Evans felt his side were hard done by.

He said: “We have two clear penalties in the game that weren’t given.

“One for handball in the first half and the second for a reckless challenge on Ben Thompson.

“We have just looked it back on the big screen with the boys, we did enough in terms of how we played comfortably to win the game.

“It is a harsh result to take isn’t it? Apart from counter-attacks we have totally dominated the game.

“We have made four big chances in the game, normally our reliable strikers score the chances that are created but they didn’t.

“Listen, we shouldn’t concede the throw-in for their goal, it is a mix-up between Dan Sweeney and the goalkeeper.

“We said at half-time that if we continue to press then we’ll create chances and we did create chances.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow but we will take it and move on.

“You can see what it means to beat little old Stevenage, World Cup stuff at the end.”

The result leaves Stevenage in sixth while Reading are now a point clear of the relegation zone in 20th and Royals manager Ruben Selles was delighted with the three points.

He said: “We knew it was going to be very difficult, there are not a lot of teams who can come here and win.

“We knew we would have to play well and take our chances in possession.

“The ball came from a throw-in and we have been working on it, I also think we got into some positions where if we’d worked the ball better, we could have scored at least one more goal.

“I think we know that we can perform against any team.

“I think we have talked about learning lessons from games and I think today we learned those lessons.

“I think the boys have been working really hard for it.

“The changes were entirely tactical, it was not a test, I thought especially at left-back we needed to be more dynamic in the build-up.

“We say always that we take it one day at a time, tomorrow the boys have the day off and then on Thursday and Friday we will prepare for the next game.”

Goals from Jamie Reid, Ben Thompson and Elliott List earned Stevenage a 3-0 win at Fleetwood.

Reid scored his fifth in his last four games to give the visitors a half-time lead and second-half efforts from Thompson and List helped settle the first ever meeting between the two sides.

Reid hit home a crisp opener in the eighth minute after Carl Piergianni won a header on the edge of the box and Jordan Roberts played the ball across goal.

Fleetwood had half-chances to draw level before the break, but Danny Mayor sent a shot straight at goalkeeper Taye Ashby-Hammond.

Jack Marriott could not capitalise on two chances in quick succession, seeing his first shot blocked and a second effort clear the bar.

In added time at the end of the first half Ashby-Hammond’s miscued punch from a corner found Shaun Rooney, but his wild finish flew yards over.

The hosts showed signs of life early in the second period and Phoenix Patterson crashed an effort against the crossbar.

In the 56th minute Kane Hemmings capitalised on a slip by defender Bosun Lawal to set up Thompson and he netted his first for the club.

Fleetwood pushed forward as they sought a way back into the match, but, with Mayor also hitting the bar late on, it was clear it was not to be their day.

And List completed Stevenage’s impressive victory with a breakaway goal in stoppage time.