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Kieran Lee will be back in contention for Saturday’s trip to Morecambe, with Ian Evatt confirming his midfielder had been given the night off against Cambridge for a spot of R&R!
The 33-year-old has been managing a hip problem and sat out the 2-0 win at the University of Bolton Stadium.
“I think we’d have found it hard to drag him out of the jacuzzi and massage bed today,” Evatt joked, after goals from Amadou Bakayoko and Dapo Afolayan had secured a fourth straight win in the league.
“We are just taking care of him. He is a really important player for us and has been in great form.
“He was excellent against Sunderland on Saturday and it has been a big ask for him to play Saturday-Tuesday for a while, so we highlighted this game where we thought we could give him a rest.
“We have options and you saw what Kieran Sadlier can bring, real quality, then big Jon (Dadi Bodvarsson) as well, and Kyle (Dempsey) to come into this, it is really good.”
Evatt was pleased to see Amadou Bakayoko add his first goal since November after returning to the starting line-up.
The former Coventry City striker, who now has six strikes to his name this season, led the line with Dion Charles, with Afolayan playing at number 10.
“I’m really pleased for Baka,” he said. “He probably felt a bit hard done by coming out of the team after two wins, but I’ve got some serious options now and we reverted Dapo back to the 10 role while Kieran was having a bit of a rest and a spa day.
“We have some serious competition for places and options now and the lads have to understand and respect that when we are changing things around, the lads coming in are really good players.”
George Johnston also received praise for his performance against Cambridge, showing his importance as a centre-half – but also working hard to support wing-back Declan John further up the pitch.
“That is some of the detail we are trying to add into this system,” he said. “We have the freedom as wide centre backs to step in and go and overlap, especially when we have the security of the double pivot, so they can go and express themselves.
“The defenders we bought can all handle the ball, Gethin in particular enjoys stepping forward, and a couple of times tonight and we saw it, on Saturday for the goal, and George was doing it really well again.
“I don’t think there was any bad performances tonight.”
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