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Wanderers have missed Gethin Jones – and Ian Evatt is not afraid to admit it.
Making his first start since October, when he was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his fibula, the defender put in a note-perfect performance in victory against Ipswich Town.
Jones lined-up on the right side of a back three in a new 3-5-2 formation, and the Bolton boss believes his input is already having a positive effect on the team.
“Boy we’ve missed him,” he said after the 2-0 win at the UniBol. “We’ve missed his leadership qualities, his composure, his experience, his athleticism. All of a sudden now, we look like we’ve got some energy in the team.
“We have got some real pace at the back, some real pace in midfield, in wide areas and we’ve got some pace and power upfront.
“Energy can hurt teams and I thought today at times we looked like we could hurt Ipswich.”
Evatt dropped Dapo Afolayan and Joel Dixon to the bench, among the four changes he made to the side which had lost the previous Tuesday to Wycombe.
He also switched up the formation to a 5-3-2 but was delighted with the way his side applied themselves to grab their first win in 2022.
“All calls in management are big and the two big ones today were probably Joel for James and Dapo stepping aside,” he said.
“They are not easy decisions and managers are paid to make them but the most important thing is that the lads accept what happens. It’s about the team, it’s about the group.
“I am absolutely delighted today that the group showed togetherness, we showed spirit, we showed energy, but we showed some quality as well and that’s won us the game.”
Wanderers had to defend well in the second half against Ipswich and surrender the lion’s share of possession. But Evatt believes his side can hold better control of games once they get more accustomed to the new formation.
“I think Ipswich are a very good team,” he said. “They are obviously coached really well, Kieran is a very experienced coach and worked with some of the world’s best players and you can see that they’ve been doing that with the system a bit longer than us.
“I’d like to think in possession we’ll be a bit like them in the future, but for today it was about doing things as a unit, defending compactly as a unit, and then making sure we attacked together in numbers.
“The other day against Wycombe we had so many balls flash across their face and so many opportunities, but not enough bodies up the pitch to be able for us to score, especially in the box, so today we went for two strikers instead of the one and the wing-backs were getting on the last line.
“Kieran (Lee) makes such intelligent runs and movements and all of a sudden we looked a real threat and I’m really delighted for the players because they’ve been through the mill the last couple of months.”
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