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Ian Evatt has one request of the Wanderers fans as his team looks to secure a place in the play-off final at Wembley: “Bring the noise!”
The Bolton boss is banking on a partisan atmosphere at the Toughsheet Stadium tomorrow night to help hammer home a 3-1 advantage against Barnsley and take an important step towards Championship football.
More than 20,000 fans have already snapped up tickets with Friday night’s result at Oakwell attracting another surge of interest over the weekend.
Evatt praised the fearsome backing supplied in the first leg by the lucky 2,100 who managed to grab a ticket in what was a reduced allocation. Now, with numbers significantly altered in Wanderers’ favour, he has one final request to make.
“We all have a job to do,” he told The Bolton News. “Those supporters were unbelievable, they were incredible.
“They supported the lads from minute one and hopefully every one of them went home happy but as much as the players and I have a job to do on Tuesday, they have a really big job as well.
“They need to create a raucous, intense atmosphere that will intimidate Barnsley and help us get the job done.
“They need to bring the noise from first minute to last because we’re all in this together.”
Wanderers will be aware that a 4-0 advantage was overturned by Sheffield Wednesday in last season’s League One play-offs, and for a spell in the second half on Friday night Barnsley provided evidence that they can fight their way back into the contest with the right encouragement.
Evatt wants to leave nothing to chance. Inside the camp he is keen to replicate the same supportive mood that helped dissolve any disappointment at having lost out on the automatic promotion spots.
He said: “I am proud, not just of the 11 players who started that game but of the ones who didn’t even get on the pitch. There were lads out of that squad who had every right to be disappointed but there was no sign of it, all they did was support and back the players. They did it perfectly and showed the togetherness.
“For the second leg we all have to do our bit – me, the staff, the players and also the fans. We need to show up on Tuesday night and do every single little thing we can do to get us through to the final.
“Barnsley showed in that 15-minute spell that they can put you under heavy pressure and we want to avoid that if we can.
“So, we need everybody to help see this through. We need to do our job.”
Barnsley defender Josh Earl believes the pressure is off his team as they go into the game as heavy underdogs.
He told the Barnsley Chronicle: “They beat us by two goals. Who is to say we can’t beat them by two goals on Tuesday? We just have to rest and recover, train on Sunday, put work in and figure out how we’re going to do it.
“The pressure is off us in a sense. We can thrive off that. As soon as you get one back, you never know what can happen.”
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