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Phil Parkinson will not name his team until a couple of hours before kick-off at Shrewsbury Town this afternoon.
The Wanderers boss wants to give Mark Beevers, Darren Pratley, Jay Spearing and Adam Le Fondre every chance to prove their fitness after the quartet picked up minor injuries in the midweek victory over Oxford United.
All the players who travelled to Shropshire yesterday afternoon were included in a detailed morning training session outlining Parkinson’s game-plan at the Greenhous Meadow.
But the manager will not let his players know until the last possible moment who will be selected for a game he feels will be crucial to the promotion run-in.
“I said to the lads that the coaching staff and physios want to assess everyone, right up to lunchtime – that’s how big I feel this game is,” he told The Bolton News at the training ground yesterday.
“I want to give every opportunity to the players to be fit but also me and Steve (Parkin) have got to pick a team that can get a result.
“We have had a few niggles so training was more about walking through some generic things, set plays etc, and making sure everyone was up to speed on what we wanted.
“I have to get this right. I want to make sure the team I pick can run themselves into the ground for three points again.”
Parkinson experienced successful promotion campaigns as a player with Reading and as a manager at Colchester United and Bradford City.
And he has learned not to over-analyse the league table or start plotting a path to automatic promotion.
“In times I have been in this situation before as a player and as a manager it boils down to focusing on what is happening now, the process, rather than thinking ‘what happens if they win here, or we win there?’ he said.
“It comes down to what we do out there for 94-95 minutes. If you do your job, results tend to follow and we get where we want to get to.
“The next target is Shrewsbury. The lads have come in champing at the bit again, which is great to see, but me and Steve have to make sensible choices now because there are seven games to go after this.”
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The Wanderers boss wants to give Mark Beevers, Darren Pratley, Jay Spearing and Adam Le Fondre every chance to prove their fitness after the quartet picked up minor injuries in the midweek victory over Oxford United.
All the players who travelled to Shropshire yesterday afternoon were included in a detailed morning training session outlining Parkinson’s game-plan at the Greenhous Meadow.
But the manager will not let his players know until the last possible moment who will be selected for a game he feels will be crucial to the promotion run-in.
“I said to the lads that the coaching staff and physios want to assess everyone, right up to lunchtime – that’s how big I feel this game is,” he told The Bolton News at the training ground yesterday.
“I want to give every opportunity to the players to be fit but also me and Steve (Parkin) have got to pick a team that can get a result.
“We have had a few niggles so training was more about walking through some generic things, set plays etc, and making sure everyone was up to speed on what we wanted.
“I have to get this right. I want to make sure the team I pick can run themselves into the ground for three points again.”
Parkinson experienced successful promotion campaigns as a player with Reading and as a manager at Colchester United and Bradford City.
And he has learned not to over-analyse the league table or start plotting a path to automatic promotion.
“In times I have been in this situation before as a player and as a manager it boils down to focusing on what is happening now, the process, rather than thinking ‘what happens if they win here, or we win there?’ he said.
“It comes down to what we do out there for 94-95 minutes. If you do your job, results tend to follow and we get where we want to get to.
“The next target is Shrewsbury. The lads have come in champing at the bit again, which is great to see, but me and Steve have to make sensible choices now because there are seven games to go after this.”
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