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Ian Evatt has challenged his strikers to rediscover their hunger in front of goal in the final stretch of the season.
Wanderers have rained a total 40 shots over their last two games but managed to hit the back of the net just once, as Jon Dadi Bodvarsson snatched an injury time point against Morecambe last Tuesday night.
Consequently, Bolton have drifted off the play-off chase, and now look almost certain to be playing League One football again next season.
Evatt has refused to give up on a top six spot but believes his attacking players have allowed their standards to drop.
“They know that we believe in them,” he told The Bolton News. “We have some really good strike options, some really good forward players, and it’s an old cliche, but the main thing is we are creating them, and they are getting themselves into good positions and in good areas.
“But for me the habit starts on the training ground. Everything comes off the back of that.
“There isn’t a magic tap that you can turn on and off throughout the week and then on for the Saturday’s game. You have to have good habits throughout the week every day in training. It has to matter.
“Every chance you get in training whether it means anything or not, you have to want to see the ball hit the back of the net and I think we’ve probably come away from that a little bit.
“We have to have that ruthless edge again and I have no doubt that we’ll find it. I’m just disappointed that for two games, I feel like we’ve performed really well and we’ve ended up with one point.”
Dion Charles has failed to score in his last five outings and cut a frustrated figure in Saturday’s defeat against Plymouth Argyle.
Evatt has backed the Northern Ireland international to work through his dip of form in front of goal.
“He does need a goal and strikers have these spells,” said the Bolton boss. “He was on fire less than two weeks ago and then this week he’s had probably four or five gilt-edged chances and should be taking them. He’d back himself to take them.
“We will work with him, support him, and give him the confidence he needs to make sure that when he gets in those moments again that he takes those opportunities.”
Even at Gillingham Evatt had noted that his side had missed some big goalscoring chances to extend the 3-0 winning score-line.
Much of the focus against Plymouth fell on Bolton’s defence, who conceded a sloppy goal before half-time to surrender an advantage, but Evatt feels his front men also have to shoulder some responsibility.
“It concerns you in games but when you’re winning games, it kind of has an irrelevance,” he said of the ‘drop-off’ in training. “It highlights more when it costs you points, as it did against Morecambe and Plymouth.
“We played well enough in both games to win them. There’s no-one that could argue that.
“It is not a lack of creativity we just have not been clinical enough.”
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