Steven Schumacher fired Bolton Wanderers warning after Cardiff City blow | OneFootball

A Bolton Wanderers player has issued a firm warning to his side following Saturday afternoon's 2-0 defeat to promotion rivals Cardiff City

Any remaining hopes held by Bolton Wanderers of pinching an automatic promotion spot were handed a seismic blow when the Trotters slumped to a 2-0 defeat away to second-placed Cardiff City over the weekend, leaving Brian Barry-Murphy's side in pole position to finish in second-place.

Bolton headed to the Welsh capital smelling blood, with midfielder Ruben Rodrigues even admitting that he believed Cardiff could crumble. The Bluebirds had, after all, endured a patchy run of form ever since losing their sight of the League One title by losing at home to Lincoln City last month, having won just one of the last six games before facing off against Wanderers.

Bolton, whose own form over the same period had been similarly inconsistent, entered Saturday afternoon's showdown with an opportunity to close the gap between the two sides to just five points, albeit with Cardiff still holding the advantage of a further game in hand.

However, Bolton never got going as Cardiff set about asserting their dominance infront of a buoyant home crowd. The first half passed by without Steven Schumacher's side registering a single shot on goal and the hosts raced into a two-goal advantage shortly after the interval through two strikes from Omari Kellyman and Chris Willock in as many minutes.

That went without response from Wanderers, who failed to offer any response as they fell to a disappointing defeat on the road which has now all-but-sealed the race for automatic promotion.

Bolton do, of course, remain in a strong position to secure a third top-six finish in four seasons, although they have now been warned of potentially dropping out of the play-offs entirely in the dying embers of the campaign.

Cyrus Christie issues Bolton Wanderers, play-offs warning

That warning has come from Bolton defender Cyrus Christie, who has made 26 appearances for the Trotters across all competitions since his arrival in September of last year as a free agent.

The 33-year-old notably struggled against the lively Willock before being substituted for Amario Cozier-Duberry on the hour mark in an attack-minded intervention from Schumacher.

Now, reflecting on his side's disappointing defeat in South Wales, ex-Swansea City man Christie outlined that Bolton need to focus on simply finishing inside the play-offs before worrying about who they could get and how viable the prospect of promotion actually is.

Evidently concerned over Bolton's mettle in recent times, Christie explained that the job is far from done and, though the Trotters are positioned in fourth with a seven-point advantage over seventh-placed Plymouth Argyle with four games to spare, they will face off against top-six contenders in each of those - starting with the visit of in-form Stevenage to the Toughsheet Community Stadium tomorrow evening.

Christie told The Bolton News: "Don’t worry about who we get, worry more about getting there in the first place!

"Whether you think the job is done or not, we’re not cemented in there yet.

"We have to take that. We can't worry about the play-offs. We have to worry about getting there, then we can worry about positions and performances. That’s the stage we are at now.

"We went into the Lincoln game (1-1 draw in February) and could have gone three points behind them. What are we now? Twenty-odd points behind them? It depends how you look at it.

"It was too many draws in that unbeaten run. We could have put more pressure on them. It's a difficult one. We need to maybe deal with the pressure a bit more, a bit better.

"We know that there's people now behind us that are chasing our tail and are after us. But we have to concentrate on us, not the other results. I think that was the same previously before, just the same as before.

"We were chasing Cardiff and Lincoln but we knew it was a matter of what we did.

"If we win, then happy days. But we can't expect others to lose. We can't expect others to not get a result.

"We need to have that expectation from ourselves to get the result and win. It's a challenge we have to embrace, a pressure we have to embrace. If the lads don't want that, then you're in the wrong game."

Bolton Wanderers have passed up crucial promotion opportunity

Even if a play-off finish is wrapped up in the coming weeks, Bolton may still kick themselves for passing up repeated opportunities to close the gap, and potentially overtake, Cardiff in second.

Before defeating the Trotters, Cardiff had won just two of their last eight games. Bolton, however, only took three victories across the same time-frame, which yielded merely one defeat but brought through a succession of frustrating draws, with Schumacher's side dropping points against lesser opposition instead of putting the pressure on a vulnerable and out-of-form City outfit.

Saturday's clash at Cardiff City Stadium was Bolton's last real chance to derail the Bluebirds' bid for automatic promotion, which is now under no remaining threat, and the Trotters will need to set their sights on not falling off track in their final four games of the season to head into the play-offs with momentum as they pursue a long-awaited Championship return.