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Wanderers have an “obligation” to get their promotion march back on track against Cheltenham Town tomorrow night, says Ian Evatt.
Well below par at Leyton Orient at the weekend, the Whites have mercifully not had to wait long to make amends as they welcome the Robins for their rearranged League One clash.
Reading the riot act has been a relatively rare requirement for the Wanderers boss this season – but he says honest words were needed to move forward.
“Maybe not so much the hairdryer, more a hand-dryer,” he told The Bolton News.
“There still has to be strong and strict words and I think you know me well enough now to know there is an edge. I’m a decent enough fella but when it comes to football matches I want to win, and when we don’t, it hurts me.
“I don’t think it was one or two on Saturday, it was pretty much all of them, for whatever reason.
“Even though we were well below par we should have got something out of the game with the chances we created, which shows the type of team we have become.
“We lost a game, that is allowed to happen, and it will happen, but it is always how you respond which is the most important thing. And it is our obligation to put things right tomorrow night.”
Bolton’s best two chances at Orient fell to top scorer Dion Charles but Evatt is holding his whole squad collectively responsible, challenging his team-mates to chip in with more goals.
“I think other players need to step up – we can’t rely on Dion all the time,” he said.
“If he misses chances, which he is going to do because nobody is perfect, someone else has to stand up and take that on.”
Wanderers have no new injury issues and could bring Randell Williams in from the start after hamstring issues have forced him to play a bit-part in recent weeks.
Training sessions have been affected by the recent wild weather and forced Evatt into a slightly different approach in the build-up to Cheltenham.
“It isn’t easy but we want to be a club who takes that sort of excuse off the table and we’ll have to find different ways of doing it,” he said.
“There has been lots of video analysis and learning, which is important, and we have group meetings, unit meetings and individual meetings to try and improve the players on a daily basis.
“There is a great desire within this group to learn. Sitting back and analysing Saturday’s game to see what we should and could have done better is a really important part of the process.
“We have had the honest conversations, they accept and understand it. We will concentrate on being better.
“We are still in the best position in the league in terms of points per game, the game in hand means it is still very much in our control. We just need to execute the performance.”
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