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Neil Lennon won’t risk throwing all of his new recruits in at once as he takes his side to Derby County tomorrow.
While Wanderers will have a new look with the addition of Simeon Slavchev, Barry Bannan, Filip Twardzik along with new arrivals Adam Le Fondre and Rochinha, Lennon is reluctant to take too many changes against one of the Championship’s top sides.
The midweek cup replay against Liverpool has again made preparation for the iPro Stadium more difficult but the Northern Irishman does expect to freshen his side up after their FA Cup efforts – including a replacement in midfield for the suspended Neil Danns.
“We have got a few more options to consider now, which is pleasing from my point of view,” he told The Bolton News.
“The difficult thing is we may need to drip feed a few of them who haven’t played for a while and who might need some time to settle down.
“Allied to that Heskey and Davies are not too far away, so we’ll have a few bodies in there to help over the course of a tough run of games.”
Wanderers are actually on exactly the same number of points at this stage of the year as they were in 2012, when Dougie Freedman led them to a late run towards the play-offs, thwarted on the final day of the season.
Lennon’s Whites actually have a game in hand – having played only 28 so far – but the manager is in no doubt as to how tough the rest of February could be.
“It’s for other people to say what we’ve done since we came in but I’m sure the fans will be proud of their team at the moment,” he said. “They certainly should be.
“We were down to the bare bones. We had youth team players on the bench (on Wednesday), which isn’t ideal in the Championship let alone a team like Liverpool.
“But all that has gone now and we’ve got a huge month coming up, one we can look forward to playing the likes of Derby, Watford, Forest and Fulham.
“They are big games but we’ve got a few players in now to help us as well.”
Lennon has a big choice to make in defence, where Matt Mills is expected to return after playing as an emergency striker in midweek.
David Wheater and Dorian Dervite were both in fine form against Liverpool, while Tim Ream is tipped to move into the defensive midfield role vacated by Danns.
The manager was full of praise for Mills for working hard in an unfamiliar role against the Reds.
“I thought he was brilliant,” he said.
“We knew we wouldn’t have too much of the ball but Matt won so many headers, we wanted to unnerve Liverpool when we got the ball into the box and we did.
“In fact, I just wished it had been Millsy going in on that cross from Feeney after we’d scored the first goal rather than Eidur because it was a great ball and he should have scored.
“In fact, everything went according to plan up to that last few minutes by which point, it’s out of your hands as a manager.”
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While Wanderers will have a new look with the addition of Simeon Slavchev, Barry Bannan, Filip Twardzik along with new arrivals Adam Le Fondre and Rochinha, Lennon is reluctant to take too many changes against one of the Championship’s top sides.
The midweek cup replay against Liverpool has again made preparation for the iPro Stadium more difficult but the Northern Irishman does expect to freshen his side up after their FA Cup efforts – including a replacement in midfield for the suspended Neil Danns.
“We have got a few more options to consider now, which is pleasing from my point of view,” he told The Bolton News.
“The difficult thing is we may need to drip feed a few of them who haven’t played for a while and who might need some time to settle down.
“Allied to that Heskey and Davies are not too far away, so we’ll have a few bodies in there to help over the course of a tough run of games.”
Wanderers are actually on exactly the same number of points at this stage of the year as they were in 2012, when Dougie Freedman led them to a late run towards the play-offs, thwarted on the final day of the season.
Lennon’s Whites actually have a game in hand – having played only 28 so far – but the manager is in no doubt as to how tough the rest of February could be.
“It’s for other people to say what we’ve done since we came in but I’m sure the fans will be proud of their team at the moment,” he said. “They certainly should be.
“We were down to the bare bones. We had youth team players on the bench (on Wednesday), which isn’t ideal in the Championship let alone a team like Liverpool.
“But all that has gone now and we’ve got a huge month coming up, one we can look forward to playing the likes of Derby, Watford, Forest and Fulham.
“They are big games but we’ve got a few players in now to help us as well.”
Lennon has a big choice to make in defence, where Matt Mills is expected to return after playing as an emergency striker in midweek.
David Wheater and Dorian Dervite were both in fine form against Liverpool, while Tim Ream is tipped to move into the defensive midfield role vacated by Danns.
The manager was full of praise for Mills for working hard in an unfamiliar role against the Reds.
“I thought he was brilliant,” he said.
“We knew we wouldn’t have too much of the ball but Matt won so many headers, we wanted to unnerve Liverpool when we got the ball into the box and we did.
“In fact, I just wished it had been Millsy going in on that cross from Feeney after we’d scored the first goal rather than Eidur because it was a great ball and he should have scored.
“In fact, everything went according to plan up to that last few minutes by which point, it’s out of your hands as a manager.”
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