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Wanderers boss Ian Evatt says he sees no reason why the 2020/21 season should not finish when it's meant to, despite being played out in the middle of a global pandemic.
Covid-19 has already hampered this afternoon's opponents, Grimsby Town, who arrive at the University of Bolton Stadium having had to postpone three games and miss a chunk of training after a positive test for Jock Curran forced the whole squad to self isolate.
It is a scenario that could well be repeated many times this season with infection rates back on the rise, while tighter lockdown restrictions have not been ruled out both locally and nationally, which could have an impact on the game.
But Evatt says it is important that it's business as usual for football, as much as possible, and that the coronavirus does not kibosh another season.
Asked if he could see a situation where the season does not finish when it's meant to, like last season - when Leagues One and Two were settled on a points per game system and the Premier League and Championship completed the remaining fixtures in a tight timeframe from June, the Whites manager said: “No. I think we just need to get on with it and learn to live with it.
“I think it could be and should be policed a little bit better – whether there are set rules and guidelines in terms of needing X amount of cases for a game to be postponed or called off. I don’t know. But we probably need to figure it out a little bit better.
“However, the season should continue, the season should finish. We’ve started. We started in a pandemic, why can’t we finish in a pandemic?"
Of the possibility of the season being extended to accommodate any postponed games, should they mount up, Evatt added: “How far do you extend it?
“Obviously we don’t want to see players playing Saturday-Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, so we can extend. However, there’s still a Euros to play in the summer, players do need rest, we all need a holiday I think. But hopefully we’ll all be holidaying on the back of a successful season. That’s what we want.
“There’s no excuses, we all have to get on with it. It’s tough for everybody and certainly us as people in the football industry are very lucky to be a part of an industry that’s continuing. Obviously it’s suffering but it’s not suffering like the hospitality industry and people losing their jobs out there. They’re the people that I really feel for.
“I hope that we can do all we can as a society and a country to make sure that everybody, as best we can, keeps their jobs because this is nobody’s fault, it’s just something that we’ve all got to live with."
Grimsby not only have their hiatus to get over but also the back-to-back league defeats recorded before their enforced break.
And Evatt has warned against complacency when his side go up against his former Blackpool boss Ian Holloway, with whom he won promotion to the Premier League.
“Ollie loves to be an underdog. He loves it. We achieved so much at Blackpool as an underdog," he said.
“Grimsby Town are coming here as an underdog anyway because we’re Bolton Wanderers and we’ve got a huge target on our back that we all speak about, but also the fact that they’ve had three weeks without training.
"They’ll use that to their advantage, we have to make sure that we don’t lure ourselves into a false sense of security and get to the levels that we’ve been playing at for the last week or so. If we do that I’m very confident we’ll get the right result."
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Covid-19 has already hampered this afternoon's opponents, Grimsby Town, who arrive at the University of Bolton Stadium having had to postpone three games and miss a chunk of training after a positive test for Jock Curran forced the whole squad to self isolate.
It is a scenario that could well be repeated many times this season with infection rates back on the rise, while tighter lockdown restrictions have not been ruled out both locally and nationally, which could have an impact on the game.
But Evatt says it is important that it's business as usual for football, as much as possible, and that the coronavirus does not kibosh another season.
Asked if he could see a situation where the season does not finish when it's meant to, like last season - when Leagues One and Two were settled on a points per game system and the Premier League and Championship completed the remaining fixtures in a tight timeframe from June, the Whites manager said: “No. I think we just need to get on with it and learn to live with it.
“I think it could be and should be policed a little bit better – whether there are set rules and guidelines in terms of needing X amount of cases for a game to be postponed or called off. I don’t know. But we probably need to figure it out a little bit better.
“However, the season should continue, the season should finish. We’ve started. We started in a pandemic, why can’t we finish in a pandemic?"
Of the possibility of the season being extended to accommodate any postponed games, should they mount up, Evatt added: “How far do you extend it?
“Obviously we don’t want to see players playing Saturday-Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, so we can extend. However, there’s still a Euros to play in the summer, players do need rest, we all need a holiday I think. But hopefully we’ll all be holidaying on the back of a successful season. That’s what we want.
“There’s no excuses, we all have to get on with it. It’s tough for everybody and certainly us as people in the football industry are very lucky to be a part of an industry that’s continuing. Obviously it’s suffering but it’s not suffering like the hospitality industry and people losing their jobs out there. They’re the people that I really feel for.
“I hope that we can do all we can as a society and a country to make sure that everybody, as best we can, keeps their jobs because this is nobody’s fault, it’s just something that we’ve all got to live with."
Grimsby not only have their hiatus to get over but also the back-to-back league defeats recorded before their enforced break.
And Evatt has warned against complacency when his side go up against his former Blackpool boss Ian Holloway, with whom he won promotion to the Premier League.
“Ollie loves to be an underdog. He loves it. We achieved so much at Blackpool as an underdog," he said.
“Grimsby Town are coming here as an underdog anyway because we’re Bolton Wanderers and we’ve got a huge target on our back that we all speak about, but also the fact that they’ve had three weeks without training.
"They’ll use that to their advantage, we have to make sure that we don’t lure ourselves into a false sense of security and get to the levels that we’ve been playing at for the last week or so. If we do that I’m very confident we’ll get the right result."
Source