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Gethin Jones is confident that Wanderers are moving in the right direction despite falling to a first defeat in pre-season against Wigan Athletic.
Ian Evatt’s side lost 1-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly against their Championship neighbours but gave a good account of themselves in their fourth outing of the summer.
Elias Kachunga also missed a first-half penalty with the game still goalless, with several other chances also falling by the wayside for the Whites.
Vice-captain, Jones, believes the tactical tweaks Evatt has made since returning to the training ground last month are now starting to come to fruition, and with three friendlies to go – the first of which is at Watford tomorrow – he is upbeat about their condition heading into the new League One season.
“We had a meeting after the game and we genuinely think everything we are working on is coming more into play,” he said.
“I think we need sharpness, do what we’re doing in training more consistently. When we do it, we are picking teams off.
“Wigan have just got promoted and I came off the pitch thinking we played well. Now there are three more tough games building towards that first day against Ipswich, so we are looking forward to them.”
Saturday’s game also enabled Evatt to look at new signing Jack Iredale in a wing-back role alongside George Johnston on the left side of Bolton’s defence.
Jones, who played alongside the Australian at Carlisle United, has been pleased with the way he has settled since arriving from Cambridge United.
“When he told me that Bolton were interested in him, I said we’d be a perfect fit,” he said. “I know the way Jack plays and he can play left centre-back, left wing-back, he will be able to do either of those roles really well.
“I remember the first week he came in, when we were in Portugal, he came to me and said: ‘Jesus, this training is sharp!’ “It is how we go about things every day and I think now that he has settled I think he can only improve.”
Evatt allayed fears over Amadou Bakayoko’s fitness after he sat out of the Wigan friendly.
The striker hurt his knee in training on Friday and was rushed to hospital for tests but has now thankfully been told that the injury will not keep him out of action for long.
“It isn’t too serious and will only be a week to two weeks, which is important,” Evatt added.
“It looked a bad one initially and he was in a lot of pain. We feared the worst but fortunately he’s had it scanned today and it’s just a grade one medial ligament strain and in a week to two weeks he’ll be ready to go again.
“The rest of them are gaining fitness all the time.
“I think we are progressing really well and the way pre-season has been structured and the way it’s bubbling along from slow to the better opposition now is really good and positive for us.”
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