Home
Ian Evatt has urged his players to do themselves justice as they build-up to a make-or-break week at Wanderers.
Facing consecutive games against promotion chasers Wigan Athletic, Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday, the Bolton boss knows his team will most likely have to win all three games if they are to retain any hope of catching sixth spot and a play-off position.
Evatt insists the chase is not over but with Sheffield Wednesday beating Cheltenham Town on Saturday the gap has now stretched to a formidable 11 points with seven games remaining.
First up a trip to the DW Stadium and a chance to make amends for one of the lowest notes of the campaign so far. October’s 4-0 defeat at home to Wigan proved a gut punch in what had been a reasonable start to the campaign.
Regardless of what is riding on the result, Evatt wants to make sure standards are high.
“Obviously, everyone wants to beat their rivals and we want to do that more than anyone,” he told The Bolton News. “But for us, it is about us. We have to make sure we perform at our best levels.
“It will be a completely different game to the one at Crewe. We have got seven games to give ourselves a chance, and that is the first of them. We will go there and give it our best shot.”
Though many fear Wanderers are too far off the pace to have a realistic chance of a play-off spot, Evatt refuses to give up on what had been his own pre-season target.
With 21 points still up for grabs, though, the Bolton boss knows he may need every single one to sneak into the top six.
“The picture changes quick, doesn’t it?” he said. “Everyone thought we were out of it (before the Crewe victory) and we were disappointed with the one point from the previous two games because of the performance levels in those two games compared to the way we had been playing.
“At Crewe it was completely different and just about finding a way to win, and we managed it.
“Now we have to get back to that level of performance if we are going to give ourselves any chance at all.”
Three of Wanderers’ four-strong international contingent saw action over the last few days.
Jon Dadi Bodvarsson played 70 minutes for Iceland as they drew 1-1 with Finland in Switzerland.
Dion Charles came on as a substitute in the 63rd minute for Northern Ireland in their 3-1 win against Luxembourg.
Amadou Bakayoko made his debut for Sierra Leone as they were beaten 3-0 by Togo in Turkey on Friday. He then followed that up with his first goal for his country in a 1-0 win against Liberia on Sunday.
And James Trafford was an unused substitute in England Under-20s’ 2-0 defeat against Poland.
Source