Home
Wanderers are no “soft touch” in League One – and Ian Evatt reckons Tuesday night’s hard-fought win in Shrewsbury proved it.
Often accused of struggling against the most direct and physical teams in the division, Bolton have now beaten the Stevenage, Wycombe and the Shrews within the space of seven games.
Evatt believes it is the perfect riposte to claims that his possession-hungry side cannot mix up their approach when needed, and puts them in a perfect mood for this weekend’s key encounter at the top end of the table against Blackpool.
“We know what we can do with the ball but everyone has pointed the finger at us in that type of game in the past and it is great to silence some of our critics,” he said after Paris Maghoma and Aaron Morley had scored in the 2-0 win in Shrewsbury.
“The belief is there for all to see – and they don’t want to be labelled that. We are not a soft touch.
“Everyone’s perception for an in-possession football team is that we are a bit soft and flaky but this group of players is not that, they fight, they scrap and they are tough. Yes, they do it in our way, but they still do it.
“Nathan barely made a save and that is absolutely credit to the way we defended. It was a huge win, no doubt about it, but it is only one win.
“Now we have a very big game on Saturday which means an awful lot to me.”
Wanderers will be back on the more familiar turf of the Toughsheet Stadium this weekend but Evatt admitted that the narrow dimensions of the pitch at Shrewsbury presented a problems, especially in the first half.
“There is more grass off the field than there is on it,” he joked.
“It is a really tight surface and it does not play to our strengths. But we stayed in the game and we back the quality we have in this team. We have scored plenty of goals this season and we knew if we stayed solid, did the basics, that the chances would come when they started to tire.
“I thought they were really well set-up. Tayls had them drilled and made it very difficult to play through them centrally, we’d have limited chances up to the second half.
“We kept the belief and got the rewards.”
Meanwhile, a share statement issued by Wanderers' owners, Football Ventures, has seen £2.25m worth of shares allotted at Companies House.
It is not known at this stage whether the money will be used to service costs in the company or whether this is fresh outside investment.
Source