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Ian Evatt believes he has the backing of Wanderers’ owners to turn around the club’s wretched start to the season.
With just one win from their opening six games, Bolton were beaten by rock-bottom Oldham Athletic at home to drop into 20th position in League Two.
Evatt, who came to the club at the start of July, had already been the first Wanderers manager to fail to record a victory in their first five competitive games but looked to have turned a corner a fortnight ago when his players carved out a hard-fought win against Harrogate.
Since then a goalless draw against Grimsby and a dreadful 2-1 defeat against Oldham – both of whom were bottom of the league at the time – has ramped up the pressure further on the 38-year-old’s shoulders.
Evatt feels that – for now – he has the backing of Bolton’s owners, Football Ventures.
“I am very disappointed with the start. Sharon (Brittan), the club and the owners have put a lot of faith in me and paid a lot of money to bring me to the club with the belief of what I do and how I do them,” he said.
“It’s obviously a difficult start and it will take patience from them. I believe I have their backing, I hope I have. I will get it right. But I am too disappointed now to think about anything other than that 90 minutes of football.
“That wasn’t a team of mine out there. We don’t set them up like that, we don’t ask them to play like that, it was gutless. And it’s really hurt me to see that.”
Evatt appreciates, however, that the start made by Wanderers is nowhere close to matching expectation.
He maintains that the squad assembled in the summer with head of football operations, Tobias Phoenix, is good enough to match the promotion target it has been set.
But performances such as the one on Saturday afternoon are nevertheless a cause for great concern.
“I am always concerned,” he said. “I feel like a balloon because I get pumped up during he week with what I see out there on the training pitch and then every Saturday someone deflates me, they deflate me. That’s how it feels and it’s on repeat. It feels like Groundhog Week.
“It has to change fast because either they will be changed, or I’ll be changed. It’s as simple as that.
“This is a football club which should be doing better. It won’t change my belief, what we are doing and what we are trying to implement but some of them are not good enough, simple as that.”
Asked how he intends to fix the problems, with a quick turnaround to face his former club on Tuesday night, Evatt added: “The way we fix it is hard work, no sleep, and sift through the debris trying to figure out a team to go and beat Barrow on Tuesday.”
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With just one win from their opening six games, Bolton were beaten by rock-bottom Oldham Athletic at home to drop into 20th position in League Two.
Evatt, who came to the club at the start of July, had already been the first Wanderers manager to fail to record a victory in their first five competitive games but looked to have turned a corner a fortnight ago when his players carved out a hard-fought win against Harrogate.
Since then a goalless draw against Grimsby and a dreadful 2-1 defeat against Oldham – both of whom were bottom of the league at the time – has ramped up the pressure further on the 38-year-old’s shoulders.
Evatt feels that – for now – he has the backing of Bolton’s owners, Football Ventures.
“I am very disappointed with the start. Sharon (Brittan), the club and the owners have put a lot of faith in me and paid a lot of money to bring me to the club with the belief of what I do and how I do them,” he said.
“It’s obviously a difficult start and it will take patience from them. I believe I have their backing, I hope I have. I will get it right. But I am too disappointed now to think about anything other than that 90 minutes of football.
“That wasn’t a team of mine out there. We don’t set them up like that, we don’t ask them to play like that, it was gutless. And it’s really hurt me to see that.”
Evatt appreciates, however, that the start made by Wanderers is nowhere close to matching expectation.
He maintains that the squad assembled in the summer with head of football operations, Tobias Phoenix, is good enough to match the promotion target it has been set.
But performances such as the one on Saturday afternoon are nevertheless a cause for great concern.
“I am always concerned,” he said. “I feel like a balloon because I get pumped up during he week with what I see out there on the training pitch and then every Saturday someone deflates me, they deflate me. That’s how it feels and it’s on repeat. It feels like Groundhog Week.
“It has to change fast because either they will be changed, or I’ll be changed. It’s as simple as that.
“This is a football club which should be doing better. It won’t change my belief, what we are doing and what we are trying to implement but some of them are not good enough, simple as that.”
Asked how he intends to fix the problems, with a quick turnaround to face his former club on Tuesday night, Evatt added: “The way we fix it is hard work, no sleep, and sift through the debris trying to figure out a team to go and beat Barrow on Tuesday.”
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