Home
Wanderers get back to business against Bristol Rovers on Friday night in a completely different frame of mind than they were a month ago, says Ian Evatt.
Questions had been asked of the mentality within the Bolton camp after a patch of inconsistent form – with some players voicing their surprise at perceived negative vibes which had been echoing around the club’s fanbase.
But Evatt says he has picked up a different mood within the squad over the last few weeks, which bodes well for a challenging spell of fixtures heading into the New Year against sides with similar play-off aspirations.
Wanderers drew confidence from their late win at Fleetwood – a result which the manager feels exemplified the newfound steely spirit.
“The mindset thing is something that we have been working hard on with the players,” he told The Bolton News. “This is a brilliant football club, I love being here, but it has challenges and it has pressures, and it has expectation.
“Sometimes when you listen to the outside noise it can hamper the players’ confidence and it can really affect their mindset and mentality, especially trying to play the way we play and want to play.
“But they’re channelling their energies much better now. They are focusing on what they can control, what they can do on the pitch, and how they must execute the plan.
“I thought Fleetwood was a prime example of that. I thought the way they kept calm, the way they were so brave second half in possession.
“Fleetwood didn’t sacrifice, I have re-watched the game and they didn’t camp, but they just had no choice because of the way we probed, the way we moved the ball, how brave we were.
“Our decision-making with and without the ball was excellent and eventually, once that first goal went in, the most pleasing thing for me was like Burton, like Accrington, was they got the ball, they ran back to the halfway line, and said let’s go again.”
Wanderers have developed a knack for scoring late goals under Evatt, and especially so this season where 16 of the 40 they have netted in all competitions have arrived beyond the 76th minute.
“It was a tendency for my teams at Barrow, and now the same thing has happened for my teams here, and that’s no coincidence,” Evatt explained.
“It is all about managing and controlling possession and I think if you look at all of our possession stats from the minute I walked through the door, the majority of games we control the ball which asks opposition serious questions and makes them work harder than what they normally do.
“That brings fatigue and with that, that brings mistakes, whether it be mental, physical or technical and we tend to punish those mistakes, especially now given we’ve got some serious strength to bring off the bench and impact games. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
Source