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Wanderers offered some of their battle-weary stars some rest this week in an effort to get them fully charged for tomorrow’s clash with Leeds United.
Neil Lennon allowed some of his players extra time off after the weekend defeat against Burnley but will welcome his full squad back to training this morning for final preparations for the trip to Elland Road.
Wellington Silva, Lawrie Wilson, Tom Walker and Stephen Dobbie were given a run-out in the development squad on Monday night to improve their match sharpness but Lennon believes that the chance to reduce the workload on others was important.
“I think a lot of the lads have played a lot of the games just at the minute so we gave them a bit of time off this week to give them a bit of rest and recuperation,” he told The Bolton News.
“Liam Trotter coming back in would be a bonus but we’ll have to check and see how he goes over the next couple of days before we make a decision. It would be good to see him back to the form he was in before he picked up an injury.
“A few of the guys played Monday night because I felt like they needed a game and they came through that unscathed.”
With no physical scars to show from last weekend’s game against Burnley, Lennon is hoping there is no residual mental effect of the late defeat in the derby.
“I hope not. We’re playing well and that’s as good as we’ll play at home for a long, long time. Again, we have to take a lot from a game against a team that went top of the table,” he said.
“We bettered Burnley for the majority of the game. It was tough to take a defeat but if we can eradicate those individual errors then there are 12 games to go and it’s still all to play for.”
After last season’s massive injury problems Lennon has been relatively happy with how his slender squad has coped this time around.
“We have done alright when you consider where we were last year with 12 out,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of longer term injuries with hamstrings but no serious problems.
“That was something we had to look at this season. The lads want to play and if they keep performing how they did over the weekend and in the previous four or five games then there is still a belief there that we can catch the rest of the teams up.”
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Neil Lennon allowed some of his players extra time off after the weekend defeat against Burnley but will welcome his full squad back to training this morning for final preparations for the trip to Elland Road.
Wellington Silva, Lawrie Wilson, Tom Walker and Stephen Dobbie were given a run-out in the development squad on Monday night to improve their match sharpness but Lennon believes that the chance to reduce the workload on others was important.
“I think a lot of the lads have played a lot of the games just at the minute so we gave them a bit of time off this week to give them a bit of rest and recuperation,” he told The Bolton News.
“Liam Trotter coming back in would be a bonus but we’ll have to check and see how he goes over the next couple of days before we make a decision. It would be good to see him back to the form he was in before he picked up an injury.
“A few of the guys played Monday night because I felt like they needed a game and they came through that unscathed.”
With no physical scars to show from last weekend’s game against Burnley, Lennon is hoping there is no residual mental effect of the late defeat in the derby.
“I hope not. We’re playing well and that’s as good as we’ll play at home for a long, long time. Again, we have to take a lot from a game against a team that went top of the table,” he said.
“We bettered Burnley for the majority of the game. It was tough to take a defeat but if we can eradicate those individual errors then there are 12 games to go and it’s still all to play for.”
After last season’s massive injury problems Lennon has been relatively happy with how his slender squad has coped this time around.
“We have done alright when you consider where we were last year with 12 out,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of longer term injuries with hamstrings but no serious problems.
“That was something we had to look at this season. The lads want to play and if they keep performing how they did over the weekend and in the previous four or five games then there is still a belief there that we can catch the rest of the teams up.”
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