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Ian Evatt believes hard work will get Wanderers back to winning ways in League One.
Back-to-back defeats against Portsmouth and Bristol Rovers have handed the Bolton boss an unexpected setback after what had been a prolonged and consistent run of good form.
Performance levels dipped significantly in the last hour of the game at Fratton Park last Monday and in the first half at the Toughsheet Stadium on Saturday.
Wanderers have not scored in their last three games, something which has not happened since October last year, and defeat against Rovers saw them drop out of the automatic promotion spots to fifth in the table with 20 games gone.
Hopes are high that Jon Dadi Bodvarsson will shake-off a calf problem to be fit to face Leyton Orient in the final game before Christmas this weekend but no other injury problems have been carried into the week’s work at Lostock.
Evatt appreciates fans’ frustrations after two uncharacteristic dips and feels his players can get back on brand quickly.
“The players know, they are an honest group, they understand when they dip below the standards we expect and when they don’t, when they have played well,” he told The Bolton News. “That wasn’t good enough in the first half (against Bristol Rovers) and we all deserve criticism, but it has to stay at that.
“When you play like that then, yes, you have to take your medicine. We have been here before but if we win our extra game we are second in the table and there is a lot of football left to be played.
“It isn’t even halfway through the season yet, so this last week has been a tough one, we are disappointed, but it won’t define the whole season, not by a long way.
“We will keep our heads down, keep working hard, understand that the first half of that game wasn’t good enough – we apologise for that – and we have to work hard to put it right again on Saturday, which I think we can.
“It only comes with hard work. I say all the time that it isn’t a tap you can turn on and off, it has to be there all the time, on the training ground, on a matchday, you don’t get to pick and choose.”
Wanderers will be without captain Ricardo Santos this weekend, with the defender serving an automatic one-match suspension for his red card against Bristol Rovers.
Evatt has no regrets about his decision to switch defender Will Forrester for top scorer Dion Charles after Santos’s dismissal.
Fans have debated the merits of sacrificing the club’s top scorer over the past few days – but the Bolton boss maintains that only some sloppy defending on the visitors’ second goal, scored less than 60 seconds after Forrester stepped foot on the pitch, left his decision open to criticism.
“Everyone can say what they want about the tactical plan and taking off a forward when you are losing but with 10 men that was really our only choice to play the game we wanted to play,” he added.
“You saw in the second half that it worked – we just needed that score to be one, not 2-0, and to concede that second goal so quickly really was a poor one.”
Meanwhile, Wanderers' rearranged game at Barnsley has now been confirmed as taking place at Oakwell on Tuesday, March 5 (kick off 7.45pm).
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