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Ian Evatt hopes injuries to George Johnston and Shola Shoretire will not blight his side’s hard-fought victory at Charlton Athletic.
Goals from Aaron Morley and Dion Charles earned a win that takes Wanderers on to 50 points for the season – their first target in what is becoming an increasingly positive campaign.
The result was marred slightly by both Johnston and Shoretire having to be replaced – and though Evatt said after the final whistle that neither injury initially looked serious, he will be keeping his fingers crossed in the coming days.
“Shola was just a bang on his back and it has gone into spasm. I don’t think it is too bad but you never know, so we’ll pray for that one,” he said.
“George is an ankle injury. It doesn’t seem really bad but, again, I don’t want to tempt fate because those innocuous ones can be worse than we first feared.
“The new boys showed us what they are going to bring to the table as well, so it was a really pleasing day.”
The Wanderers boss was able to give debuts to Victor Adeboyejo and Cameron Jerome in the second half and was happy with the result, which put them nine points clear of seventh-placed Peterborough United, who have three games in hand.
“I think the most pleasing aspect from my point of view was after the goal had been scored in the second half,” he explained. “We had controlled the whole of the first half and it would have been easy for that to wobble the players but they regrouped and reset, grabbing hold of the game again.
“We played some really good stuff at times and should have scored more goals. ‘Shoulda woulda coulda’ – we have heard that a lot this season but we looked a real threat and Shola was electric first half when we got him on the ball.”
Wanderers had 24 shots on goal – eight on target – and while Evatt admitted his side should have won by a bigger margin, he believes the introduction of new signings like Shoretire, Jerome and Adeboyejo will help to improve sharpness in front of goal.
“I will back the players to take the chances, we have the players to take them,” he said.
“Sometimes we are looking for that extra pass, a perfect goal, and we know that.
“I have to back the players and their decision-making because eventually they will start to go in.”
On the impact he expects his new signings to make, Evatt has said he is reading little into some of the mixed reactions from within the fanbase.
“There’s no point me sitting here and trying to make statement about what we have brought in. I think we need to let the players do the talking,” he added.
“Every player we seem to sign is under massive scrutiny because this is a massive football club and every fan has an opinion.
“We think we know what we have brought into the building and we are confident they will do what we think they can do. Shola showed that first half, Cam and Vic showed second half what they can bring.”
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