Southgate admitted that a number of his side had not played at their best and that he take's full responsibility for the eventual 3- 1 home defeat.
"We have been playing well but we didn't give ourselves any kind of foothold in the game.
"Bolton have gone two ahead before we have even got out the blocks and the first goal in Premier League games is important and to go two behind was a huge task.
"It was a day where with and without the ball we made too many wrong decisions, but we said at half-time that 2-0 can be a dangerous lead.
"If you can get one back then you always have a chance in the game and the momentum changes.
"We did that but then we didn't keep them out. We couldn't build any momentum and obviously the third goal coming as quickly as it did killed us off.
"If we want to progress as a team we have to build around this and we have to go on unbeaten runs and respond to being at home and being favourites in the right way.
"We have made some errors of judgement in some of our defending in particular. We didn't deal with the set piece for their first goal and we have been punished and we hold our hands up.
"You hope to get some momentum going when you pull it back to 2-1 but you have to make sure you keep things tight at the other end and we didn't and that knocked the stuffing out of us really.
"The players are great to work with but today, collectively, we have not done enough to win the game so we have to make sure that we don't over-react to things.
"Today was a day where there were lots of mistakes made and lots of people didn't reach the standards they were setting and as a manager I have to take ultimate responsibility for that.
"We are not going to start singling people out. Lots of errors were made in the game and how we respond now during the week and next Saturday is the important thing.
"We haven't because we didn't play well enough - it's as simple as that. It hurts, but we have to react in the right way.
"We have had a very good run - it had to end at some point and now we have to respond in the right way."