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Wanderers can use the EFL trophy to their advantage and still forge a path to Wembley, says Ian Evatt.
Last night’s 3-0 win against Salford City proved a successful start to the group stages and capped off an encouraging week for the Whites, which started with victory against Derby County in League One.
Just 2,983 watched Carlos Mendes Gomes, Ricardo Santos and Aaron Morley provide a straightforward result against League Two opposition - a far cry from the 30,000-plus who followed Bolton to the final in April.
But Evatt believes the early stages can be used to maintain momentum in the league.
“We love to win games, and this is another opportunity to win consistently,” he said.
“It is a long tournament and obviously the group stages start off low key and the interest develops from the fans as it goes on. I do wish we could get more involved from the start but that is always challenging when we play so many games and we understand the cost to the fanbase.
“We want another trip to Wembley because that day was magical for everyone and why wouldn’t we want to replicate it?”
Wanderers handed a debut to Luke Matheson, who had signed for the B Team in the summer following his release at Wolves. Luke Hutchinson and Nelson Khumbeni were also on the bench.
Evatt hopes to give more opportunities in the EFL Trophy further down the line.
“That’s why we have the B Team, to have that connection, try and develop our own players and get them involved in the first team as much as possible. I think we have a strong squad of players, so they will have to be a little bit patient but tonight was the perfect opportunity,” he said.
“With Joel Coleman’s injury it has also given Luke a chance to step up. We think a lot of him and he just needs to develop and mature into the goalkeeper we think he can be.
“Being around the first team will absolutely aid that and, again, we have seen some good signs from him this week.”
Wanderers signed off in the league joint top with 13 points from their first six games and resume their schedule against Reading on September 16.
While the EFL Trophy is a nice diversion, Evatt knows his side will be judged on whether they can maintain that promotion form.
“Obviously, the league is number one priority,” he added. “We want to get this club back into the Championship at the very least. But that is going to be extremely difficult because it is a competitive division and there are quite a few teams who have had a decent start.
“If we can maintain that two points per game average, or better, then we have a fantastic chance of being promoted.
“The players will have a couple of days off but I’ll be studying Reading, I think, trying to formulate a plan for that game.
“When we return we have got a really good run of fixtures and we want to consolidate our good start to the season.”
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