Midfielder reacts to his side's third round stalemate with Crystal Palace
Jay Spearing was in a defiant mood after Wanderers earned a replay against Crystal Palace in the Emirates FA Cup third round on Saturday.
Both sides had opportunities to take the lead, but it was the Whites who had the better chances in a tough contest with Josh Vela and James Henry both going close.
Having stood out for Bolton during an impressive first half of the season in Sky Bet League One, Spearing was pleased to see the Whites maintain their strong form against top-flight opposition.
“Obviously for the club and myself we’ve shown so far that we believe we can compete at the next level," the midfielder told bwfc.co.uk. "We’re determined to make that happen again.
“I’m a little bit gutted with the draw and that we’ve not gone on and won it with the chances that we had, but you have to take positives and we look forward to the replay.
“We’ve had a good six months at this club but nothing is done yet and now we need to pick it up and push on and keep picking up important points throughout the remainder of the season."
The 28-year-old continued: “The run we’ve had at home has been excellent and it’s something we look at with confidence. We want to prove again that we can perform at the highest level in front of our home crowd and they’ve really given us the confidence this season.
“Things didn’t work out well last season and I remember how difficult it was to take. We’ve come back this year determined and we’re working really hard to get ourselves back up.”
Wanderers were unfortunate not to find that important goal and Spearing believes the replay at Selhurst Park gives the Trotters another opportunity to impress.
“We’ve shown today that we can compete against Premier League opposition," he said.
“Josh had a great header that came off the post and James Henry had a great chance at the back post that could have gone in, but unfortunately we couldn’t get that goal today.
“It was a great test for us today, but we want to get into the fourth round. We’ve shown that we can compete against this team so now we have to use the replay as an opportunity to prove again we’re good enough and hopefully get through.”