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Wanderers have received good news and bad news on Victor Adeboyejo as they start a crunch week in their promotion chase.
The striker was forced to pull out of the squad at Portsmouth last Tuesday night after pulling his hamstring in the warm-up and was sent for precautionary scans a couple of days earlier.
Medics have confirmed there is a grade one tear of the muscle but the fact Bolton caught the injury early is likely to save him from a long spell out of the reckoning.
Ian Evatt confirmed after Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Morecambe that Adeboyejo would most likely be out of the next game at home to Ipswich Town – but would be back in time to face Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough the following Friday night.
The Wanderers boss put a brave face on the result at the Mazuma Stadium on Saturday lunchtime, insisting that it would eventually be viewed as a “point gained”.
Bolton remain fourth in the table but have lost ground on the top three – Wednesday, Plymouth and Ipswich, who all won their respective games.
Morecambe’s solid home form always made them tricky opponents but having watched his side struggle to break them down, Evatt said he was not going to over-react.
“We have scored lots of goals of late,” he said. “We looked like scoring, created chances and we always do. It is just about taking them.
“The biggest one of the game was Shola’s and unfortunately we didn’t take it. But if you can’t win a game then you don’t lose it. We will take that point and go again in a big game against Ipswich.”
Evatt admits that Morecambe’s high-energy approach in the first half even took him by surprise.
“They defended the box really well,” he said. “Their middle zone, Farend Rawson, headed pretty much everything and we didn’t do our work, blocking him, well enough. He was really physical, we didn’t really manage that and when we did the referee gave a foul, so we should have mixed things up a bit and played short a couple of times to mix things up.
“We give the players lots of solutions and look at the opposition, how they are going to play, but I didn’t expect Morecambe to go sheer man for man, which they were first half.
“If you want to leave Dion Charles one on one with Rawson and half a pitch we need to utilise that, and we didn’t see it enough first half, and when we did, we didn’t take our chances.”
Evatt was frustrated, however, with the performance of match referee Oliver Langford.
“He let a lot of their stuff go, I don’t think he let a lot of our stuff go,” he added. “There was a lot of frustration from our part because I don’t think it was consistent with the game.
“Some of the tackles could have cost us. I think Declan John should have had a penalty in the first half too because anywhere else on the pitch it is a foul, so I don’t understand that one.
“We will move on, take a point, then get freshened up for a big game on Saturday.”
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