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Ian Evatt has been backed to get to the bottom of Wanderers’ play-off final failure this summer by the last man to suffer the same Wembley disappointment.
Former Bolton boss Colin Todd knows what the current man in charge is going through, having seen his team fall at the final hurdle against Watford 25 years ago.
Evatt has come under heavy fire since the 2-0 defeat to Oxford United but Todd believes he will already be establishing a plan to make changes in the coming months to ensure next season ends in promotion to the Championship.
Speaking to The Bolton News, he said: “I’m sure the result will have hurt him but when you are in his position you have to move on, put it behind you, plan for what’s ahead.
“Expectations from supporters are very high when you get to a final, and you just hope you can get over the line in 90 minutes, but it wasn’t to be.
“Now Ian will be sitting down with his staff, sitting down with the chairman, and asking where he can improve it? And I think that is the big issue.
“What finance has he got – which is always a question managers ask, and then also which of his players can he rely on to do the job next time around? There might be players there who don’t fancy the challenge, players he thinks need to be moved on, and only he will know who has the desire. You need to be mentally strong.
“I don’t think there is a psychological hangover for the manager. I think his resolve will be pretty tough and at the end of the day it was a good season.
“Disappointment is one thing but where they have come from as a club is pretty remarkable, I think. You have to congratulate Ian on the job he has done, there won’t be criticism from me, only disappointment that they couldn't win that final.”
Todd sampled the bitter taste of defeat at Wembley in 1999 as he attempted to take Wanderers back into the Premier League, having seen them cruelly relegated with 40 points a season earlier.
He remembers the hurt after a talented side containing the likes of Eidur Gudjohnsen, Mark Fish, Claus Jensen and Per Frandsen failed to do themselves justice on the day.
“Whatever reason – the occasion can get to some,” he said. “For 20 minutes against Watford we might have scored a goal but once we’d gone one down, we just couldn’t get that crucial opening and we walked off the pitch really disappointed.
“There will be some big questions being asked at the moment. Why is it that they haven’t done it on the big occasion, are there a few who haven’t quite got what it takes?
“I saw them at Derby where they had a lot of the play but only really created the one big clear-cut chance, a header, which they didn’t take. After that, it was all a bit hit and miss.
“You look around in your dressing room as a manager sometimes and you know what you are going to get from him, and him, but then there might be a question mark on the other.
“That will be what Ian is doing now. But he can come back stronger, I am sure of it.”
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