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Ian Evatt gave an update on his walking wounded at Wanderers after they finished off a tough week with victory against Shrewsbury Town.
Gethin Jones picked up a first-half knock in the 2-1 win, while Eoin Doyle also played with a minor injury which means neither is likely to feature in the midweek Papa John’s Trophy game against Liverpool’s Under-21s.
With Harry Brockbank dropped in a bench reshuffle, Evatt had to bring Lloyd Isgrove on as an auxiliary right-back for the second half.
“Gethin has got a pretty hefty dead leg,” the Bolton boss explained. “He was blocked off in the first half.
“We knew our forward players were carrying knocks – Eoin is carrying a serious one, Kacha hasn’t played much and he’s tired, Baka was returning but not fit enough to play 90 minutes, and Izzy has that nasty cut on his head, we wanted more attackers on the bench because we knew we were a bit light up there.
“We didn’t put Harry on the bench but then you need him to come on and play right-back – but Lloyd came on and he’ll give it his best wherever he plays.”
Evatt was delighted with the standard of the two goals scored on the day for Wanderers.
“They were excellent,” he said. “Dapo seems to have that finish on lockdown almost, Thierry Henry-esque, isn’t it, that cut inside and curl.
“Sarce can do that and I’m pleased for Sarce because he’s put a lot into recent performances and he is a goalscoring midfielder and he does get goals, so I’m delighted for him as well.”
Wanderers brought George Johnston in to replace Alex Baptiste after the Charlton win and says competition within the centre-halves is fierce.
“I must say we’ve got four fantastic centre-backs at the club that push each other on and Alex was unfortunate to be left out today after a good performance on Tuesday,” he said. “But we’ve got very good ones and those two were outstanding today. Rico was like a Rolls Royce at times. He’s got everything, but we’ll keep his feet on the ground and keep him working hard and keep improving.”
The selection difficulties are also apparent in midfield where Kieran Lee continued from his two-goal haul at The Valley to put in another commanding performance in the middle of the park.
“Sexy Kieran, we love sexy Kieran!” Evatt laughed. “Kieran’s a fantastic pro, a fantastic player. He’s had to be patient and again, all of our midfield players are very good. We’ve got young George (Thomason) who hasn’t had much game time at the minute that’s doing great. Josh (Sheehan) has come out of the team and done fantastically well, nothing wrong with the way he has played. Sarce, Kieran - we’ve got serious options in there as well with MJ obviously too.
“Once we get everyone fit and available, we have serious strength in depth and then it’s down to me to sift through it and we get the right teams. I’m really pleased for them today.”
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