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Ian Evatt insists Billy Crellin can reignite his Wanderers career and that bringing in Matt Gilks was not an easy decision.
The veteran player-coach impressed in his first game in 14 months as he took the place of the struggling Fleetwood loanee for the win against Salford City in front of the Sky cameras.
Crellin was back in for the Papa John’s Trophy win against Newcastle United’s youngsters on Tuesday night but is set to be on the bench again as Wanderers return to League Two action at Stevenage this afternoon.
Gilks is now the man in possession of the gloves going forward, but Evatt maintains that is not a given and that making the change in goal could not be rushed.
“We made the change last week. We felt that we needed to and Matt did ever so well,” the Bolton boss said.
“He brought to the table exactly what we thought he would and we won and kept a clean sheet so for now, that’s how it will stay.
“It was a difficult call to make for a number of reasons.
“Matt hadn’t played for over a year, he is 38 and we had to make sure that he was physically able to cope with it so we stepped up his training to give him time to be able to get up to speed.
“It was no good me making a change if Matt wasn’t able to do the job and wasn’t fit for purpose.
“We had to get him to the right level before we changed it and then we felt the time was right.
“It’s down to Matt and Billy to react, train in the right way, see how Matt trains, see how he communicates with the team and then progress themselves.
“The door’s never shut on anybody.
“It’s about going to earn it again and performing to the right levels to get yourself back in the team.”
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The veteran player-coach impressed in his first game in 14 months as he took the place of the struggling Fleetwood loanee for the win against Salford City in front of the Sky cameras.
Crellin was back in for the Papa John’s Trophy win against Newcastle United’s youngsters on Tuesday night but is set to be on the bench again as Wanderers return to League Two action at Stevenage this afternoon.
Gilks is now the man in possession of the gloves going forward, but Evatt maintains that is not a given and that making the change in goal could not be rushed.
“We made the change last week. We felt that we needed to and Matt did ever so well,” the Bolton boss said.
“He brought to the table exactly what we thought he would and we won and kept a clean sheet so for now, that’s how it will stay.
“It was a difficult call to make for a number of reasons.
“Matt hadn’t played for over a year, he is 38 and we had to make sure that he was physically able to cope with it so we stepped up his training to give him time to be able to get up to speed.
“It was no good me making a change if Matt wasn’t able to do the job and wasn’t fit for purpose.
“We had to get him to the right level before we changed it and then we felt the time was right.
“It’s down to Matt and Billy to react, train in the right way, see how Matt trains, see how he communicates with the team and then progress themselves.
“The door’s never shut on anybody.
“It’s about going to earn it again and performing to the right levels to get yourself back in the team.”
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