Home
Wanderers boss Ian Evatt says rules should be “the same across the board” following his side’s injury crisis.
Sides can only request for a game to be postponed if they have three or more players unavailable due to Covid or international call-ups under the current EFL rules.
However, the Whites will be without at least six first-team players for this weekend’s clash with Cheltenham at the UniBol.
“I was having a conversation with Simon Marland about this earlier,” said the Bolton boss. “Games get called off all the time for Covid, but how do you separate Covid from significant injuries or illnesses?
“For me the rules have to be the same across the board and we are really suffering at the moment.
“We’ll have to have a look at it and see and maybe speak with the league, but for now we can still put a team out there.
“We still think that team will be competitive so let’s just concentrate on that. It’s going to be a really, really challenging time until January.
“As a football club, we all have to muck in and stick together and do the best we can. It’s unprecedented.
“I’ve never known anything like it in my entire career, let alone managerial career, so siege mentality, stick together and do the best we can.”
Cheltenham sit 10th in the League One table and enter the game on the back of a 2-0 win against Gillingham thanks to goals from Sean Long and Alfie May.
Evatt knows it won’t be easy against the Robins but refuses to use his side’s injury problems as an excuse.
He added: “They have a distinct way of playing. They are predominantly three at the back with 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2.
“Obviously they’ve lost (Ben) Tozer’s long throw but Duffer (Michael Duff) has them coached really well.
“They’re a competitive team. They’ve had some very good results of late, so it’s going to be a tough game.”
Duff claimed there is still more to come from his side after their win against Gillingham, and Evatt says his words were “refreshing”.
“That’s refreshing to hear that Duffer has that mentality and nobody should settle for mediocrity - nobody wants that,” he said.
“You might end up there but it’s certainly not what you should set out to do and achieve.
“We’re different and I think if we’d have had a fully fit squad for the entire season - and that’s going back to the start where we’ve missed Baka and Xav from the very start - then I do genuinely think we’d be in the top six.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything in the league to make me think otherwise. But it is what it is, we are where we are and we’ve got to find a way to get results.
“Hopefully come January when we obviously are going to have to strengthen the squad, we’ll be within touching distance.”
Source
