Keegan said: “I told the players not to be disappointed.
“We were missing a lot of players. Take that into consideration and forget the hype and it’s actually a good result.
“It will improve from here. Maybe we will get players in – we’re a quality squad but we are a small squad.
He continued: “We’ll have better days. We’re short of numbers and we looked tired – there are excuses there if we want them.
“We weren’t quite good enough to win the game. A draw was a fair result and because of our endeavour we certainly didn’t deserve to lose it.
“The stadium was rocking but Bolton set themselves up to spoil the party – they came to stop us and hit us on the break.
“Our team lost 6-0 last week, has got four players away at the Africa Cup of Nations and has got more suspended.
“The team I put out was a very good one but there wasn’t much on the bench when I was looking to change things.
“From our point of view, the players gave everything.”
