Home
Wanderers’ unbeaten start to League One will end the moment they sit back and admire their handiwork.
That’s the view of Ian Evatt, who believes his side can continue to use their promotion momentum against one of last season’s direct rivals this afternoon.
Cambridge United finished a place and a point above Bolton in last season’s League Two table and have looked the part since stepping up, losing just once in their opening four games.
Bolton’s transition has been even smoother, and they will move into the top six with victory at the Abbey Stadium, having won two and drawn two so far.
“It’s momentum, isn’t it?” Evatt said. “I can only speak for my own squad of players but we’re not used to losing games. I don’t know the exact numbers but I think we’ve lost three in almost 40 games if you include pre-season, which is pretty spectacular and we’ve got that winning mentality and never say die attitude and you need to have that.
“But it needs to last throughout the season. We’ve given ourselves a good platform to build from. We’re satisfied not pleased with the start of the season, we still feel like we should have more points, but we want to go into every game with that attitude.
“That chip on our shoulder that we want to achieve more and do more and we’re fully confident and ready to go Saturday and hopefully get another good result.”
Budget-wise, Mark Bonner’s Cambridge may not be able to match Wanderers – nor most of their rival clubs in the division. But Evatt is wary of a tight-knit side which has proven hard to beat in the last 12 months, and feels his own players have to be ready to roll up their sleeves.
“I’m not surprised how well they have done,” he said. “I don’t think Cambridge have changed much from last season from what I’ve seen. I’ve watched three or four of their games now and they also a team that are high on confidence.
“I know the assistant manager Gary Waddock very well and I know he’s a good coach. He was actually my manager at QPR for a short spell so I know all about him.
“Mark is another good young coach and you can see the team is well organised. They’re overachieving for what they spend, so credit to them. They are a very hardworking and good group of players. It's going to be a difficult game on Saturday.
“We have to first and foremost compete as the bare minimum and then try and implement what we do to teams and what we have been doing to teams, which is attack in numbers, play with intensity and aggression, in and out of possession and show good quality with the ball.
“If we can do that then I’m confident we can get a good result.”
Source