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Wanderers took just 29 days to transform from serious under-achievers to play-off contenders but success places a different type of pressure on their shoulders.
As the hours of the transfer window ticked down at the very start of February, Ian Evatt’s side were significantly closer to the relegation zone than the automatic promotion spots.
A few morale-boosting transfers later, Bolton took maximum advantage of a preferable fixture schedule to give themselves a shot of League One football next season.
A more thorough examination of their promotion credentials surely awaits at Oldham Athletic on Tuesday night, and in the following games against in-form Bradford City and Cambridge United. But defender Gethin Jones feels there is an inner confidence in the Wanderers camp at present that had not been there during the first half of the season.
“We will take pressure, we’ll embrace it,” he said. “Teams won’t want to play us at the moment and we need to use that.
“We know we should have been in this situation at the start of the season and we’re disappointed it has taken this long to get there but now that we’re here, let’s push for more wins, whatever the opposition, home or away. We will be fighting for it.
“We’re working on a lot of different things in training at the moment, ways to create chances, different patterns and shapes that might work against different opposition. It is feeling very, very positive at the moment.
“And no matter who we are playing we feel like we can focus on ourselves because we know we have the quality to unlock teams.”
Wanderers found out on Saturday that a big playing surface like the UniBol is an open invitation for opposing sides to sit deep and look to pick them off on the counter-attack.
Shaun Miller’s late goal sparred a major inquest on why they were unable to find a way through Barrow but the next two games at Boundary Park and Valley Parade are unlikely to follow the same path, with a defence which has kept three consecutive clean sheets expecting to come under more pressure than it has of late.
Jones also feels there is a score to settle with Oldham after Zak Dearnley’s late winner at the UniBol back in October – a time when Wanderers looked decidedly less stable than they do right now.
“We were very disappointed with that result, so there is a point to prove,” he said. “Of course, we’ll be going there to win the game.
“When you are winning you just want them to come around again quickly.
“You don’t want a week or two of training between every game.
“We hope there will be no more issues with Covid cancelling games.
“Now we don’t want to get carried away with what we have done, just focus on going into the next game and sticking to our beliefs because the goals and the points will come.”
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As the hours of the transfer window ticked down at the very start of February, Ian Evatt’s side were significantly closer to the relegation zone than the automatic promotion spots.
A few morale-boosting transfers later, Bolton took maximum advantage of a preferable fixture schedule to give themselves a shot of League One football next season.
A more thorough examination of their promotion credentials surely awaits at Oldham Athletic on Tuesday night, and in the following games against in-form Bradford City and Cambridge United. But defender Gethin Jones feels there is an inner confidence in the Wanderers camp at present that had not been there during the first half of the season.
“We will take pressure, we’ll embrace it,” he said. “Teams won’t want to play us at the moment and we need to use that.
“We know we should have been in this situation at the start of the season and we’re disappointed it has taken this long to get there but now that we’re here, let’s push for more wins, whatever the opposition, home or away. We will be fighting for it.
“We’re working on a lot of different things in training at the moment, ways to create chances, different patterns and shapes that might work against different opposition. It is feeling very, very positive at the moment.
“And no matter who we are playing we feel like we can focus on ourselves because we know we have the quality to unlock teams.”
Wanderers found out on Saturday that a big playing surface like the UniBol is an open invitation for opposing sides to sit deep and look to pick them off on the counter-attack.
Shaun Miller’s late goal sparred a major inquest on why they were unable to find a way through Barrow but the next two games at Boundary Park and Valley Parade are unlikely to follow the same path, with a defence which has kept three consecutive clean sheets expecting to come under more pressure than it has of late.
Jones also feels there is a score to settle with Oldham after Zak Dearnley’s late winner at the UniBol back in October – a time when Wanderers looked decidedly less stable than they do right now.
“We were very disappointed with that result, so there is a point to prove,” he said. “Of course, we’ll be going there to win the game.
“When you are winning you just want them to come around again quickly.
“You don’t want a week or two of training between every game.
“We hope there will be no more issues with Covid cancelling games.
“Now we don’t want to get carried away with what we have done, just focus on going into the next game and sticking to our beliefs because the goals and the points will come.”
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