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It has been said regularly by Ian Evatt this season that Wanderers’ season will be defined by how they react to the setbacks, so this weekend’s game against Cambridge United should be a revealing insight into his team’s psyche right now.
A heavy defeat at Blackpool carried the caveat of Ricardo Santos’s red card given in error by referee Josh Smith but a loss to local rivals Wigan Athletic a few days later was practically unforgivable in the eyes of many supporters, however much the manager took solace from the performance.
Wanderers have not lost three successive league games in more than two years and for all the brickbats aimed in their direction of late, still sit level on points with second placed Derby County, who have themselves endured a tough week with defeats against Barnsley and Charlton.
A dozen games remain. Based on the previous dozen, Bolton took the fourth-best points haul, their 21 surpassed by Leyton Orient (26), Barnsley (25) and leaders Portsmouth (24). For reference, Derby took 20 during the same period.
If Wanderers can improve on that return over the last 12 games, notably above that of Derby and Barnsley, then a top two spot would most likely be secured.
“We shouldn’t lose sight of that,” said Evatt. “It is easy to become emotional over a week, even over four days in football. The way it feels at the moment is that we haven’t won for a long time, or that we have been on an awful run of form, which isn’t the case.
“We have had four days which have hurt us but it is time for calm heads, to refocus, and look at a big game on Saturday.
“We are in a strong position and it is important we don’t lose that.
“We have to do what we can to get this club into the Championship. That is where my head is at, where the players’ heads are at, and we are going to give it full focus to try and make that happen.”
Wanderers captain Ricardo Santos confirmed on Thursday that he had withdrawn from social media for the time being to try and keep himself focussed only on the run-in.
Goalkeeper Joel Coleman and some of his family have become targets for verbal and online abuse in recent weeks, and the frustration felt after two defeat against fellow Lancastrian sides this week has made for a volatile environment on social media.
Evatt has appealed to the crowd of more than 19,00 expected against Cambridge to put their own disappointment to one side for the time being.
“I don’t take any notice of social media – I don’t have it and I won’t have it. I don’t think it is good for you and it is probably not good for my players,” he said.
“But we can control what we can control. The conversations we have had this week have underlined that we are in a fantastic position and I think if we play like we did on Tuesday and add some more goals and final third stuff, we will be absolutely fine, so that is where our focus is at the moment.
“Now is the time for togetherness – and I have said this a lot, but football seasons are so challenging, they are full of ups and downs, and it is how you manage the downs that really define who you are and what you are as a football club.
“That is as poignant as you’ll get this week with the results we have had.
“Now isn’t the time for panic, finger-pointing, criticism or personal abuse, it is time to stick together, to support the team, the staff and the club and do all we can to get promoted.
“We can have these conversations in the summer and I more than happy to have them then, but at the moment the only thing that occupies my mind is getting this club into the Championship.”
With Dion Charles unlikely to feature as he recovers from a knee injury and Carlos Mendes Gomes now out for up to nine months with a ruptured Achillies, Bolton will name a new-look attack against Cambridge.
New signing Aaron Collins enjoyed a magical debut against Barnsley but has yet to look completely at home in Evatt’s 3-5-2 system of choice.
Victor Adeboyejo, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Cameron Jerome also emerged empty handed at Wigan in midweek but Evatt believes the goalscoring load should not fall solely on his strikers’ shoulders.
“We are integrating a new player into the team, which takes time, and it always has done with us,” he said. “It has been very rare that a new player has hit the ground running and Dion is probably the only one who has manged to do that.
“We are missing Dion at the moment, who is a huge goal threat, our top scorer in the last two seasons, and at the minute we haven’t got him so we have to find different solutions.
“We had chances on Tuesday night and on Saturday, we didn’t take them, and we have to be better as a collective, not just the forward group. We have to share the pressure and responsibility.
“We will give it our best shot to get this club back to where it belongs.”
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