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Gethin Jones is more than happy to see people write off Wanderers’ chances at Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night.
Outside the camp, few give Ian Evatt’s team a chance of ending the Owls’ impressive 22-game unbeaten league record which stretches all the way back to October.
Bolton’s performances began to stutter in a packed February and a run of three games without victory has set nerves jangling among supporters that they could miss out on a play-off spot.
Freed from the expectation that has so often rested on their shoulders, Jones feels this could be exactly the right type of game to put things right.
“I’d imagine nobody will give us a chance there the way they have been playing,” he told The Bolton News. “And I said to the lads, Sheffield Wednesday away, if you have played there before, the atmosphere can be unbelievable. They are flying top of the league but I’d say it is the best game we could possibly go into, to prove everyone wrong.
“We need to work hard, we need to get confidence back in the lads this week, and we have to be ready for it.
“Things haven’t gone well the last few weeks. We haven’t hit the standards we know we’re capable of hitting, so it has to start here.”
Evatt has put his faith in several young players in this play-off push, some of whom have been showing the strain in recent games.
The likes of Shola Shoretire, Luke Mbete, Eoin Toal, Conor Bradley and Aaron Morley are all experiencing their first promotion push at this level and Jones says older heads in the dressing room must help settle the nerves with the stakes so high.
“Firstly, they have to play with enjoyment every day,” he said. “If you give the ball away or make a mistake, it isn’t the end of the world. They are here to learn.
“I remember my first loan away from Everton, I was 19 at Plymouth, and I made plenty of mistakes. I came away from it thinking ‘wow, I’m not going to make it as a footballer’. You over-think stuff.
“You work hard, that’s the most important thing. But you need to enjoy what you are doing, coming into training every day.
“If you give the ball away then the main thing is – react. The way we want to play, expansive football, there will be mistakes at times. It is that first five seconds when you have done it, though, the reaction to try and win it back and not let your head go down. We need to get the lads all together and on board with that.”
Criticism – particularly in the light of Saturday’s performance in defeat against Ipswich – has been another fact of life for Jones and the squad.
“That is the way – as footballers we’ll be criticised. The following week it will be praise.
“I’ve always said you can’t get too high when you win and too low when you lose, so when you get criticism you need to learn from it, stick together as a group, don’t read into things too much.
“We have to concentrate only on ourselves and get that work done on the training ground.”
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