Jussi Jaaskelainen not to blame for defeat to Manchester United – Bolton manager Owen Coyle

BPL, Manchester United and Bolton Wanderers, Dimatar Berbatov and Jussi Jaaskelainen

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Bolton Wanderers manager Owen Coyle has refused to blame goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen for the defeat at Manchester United on Saturday.

The match seemed destined for a draw, when with three minutes to go Jaaskelainen spilled a strike from Nani to hand Dimitar Berbatov a tap-in and United all three points.

The blunder brought an end to the Trotters’ six-match unbeaten run but Coyle refused to criticise on the Finnish stopper.

“It is not my way to apportion blame. We have gifted individual players and Jussi is one of them,” Coyle was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

“He has been magnificent for me and made one or two outstanding saves, so we have to give balance to it. Everything we do, we do it as a group.”

Coyle has turned the Trotters from relegation candidates into a top-half club since taking over from Gary Megson 14 months ago.

He has also guided them to the FA Cup semi-final, and feels his side will learn from the mistakes made at Old Trafford.

“If someone had told me a year ago when I had just arrived at the club and we were favourites for relegation that we would come to Old Trafford and be disappointed to get nothing, we would have taken that,” added Coyle.

“But we also know we had a great opportunity to take points and it passed us by. For us the learning curve is to make sure when that opportunity comes round again, we take it.”