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Ian Evatt is keen to rediscover a ‘clean sheet mentality’ at Wanderers after carving out an important win at Crawley Town.
The Bolton boss praised his team’s defensive resolve and tactical execution after departing from his regular gameplan at the Broadfield Stadium.
Kyle Dempsey and John McAtee scored the goals as the Whites pushed themselves five places higher into 14th spot in the table, registering back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since early April.
“It’s baby steps forward now, building on this, and clean sheets are always a positive thing for us, as are fast starts, we know we win games when we can achieve these things,” Evatt said.
“I was pleased with the way the game started, delighted with the clean sheet, we really need to get back to keeping those because it’s a big thing in what we do.
"Defensively, I was really pleased with what I saw from everyone, really, so we need to keep that up."
Wanderers deliberately conceded possession at Crawley, hitting their hosts on the break. And though the approach seemed out of character for both the manager and his players, the result suggests the plan worked to a tee.
“It isn’t how I want to play, or like to play, you know I want to dominate the ball, but sometimes you have to respect the opposition and the fact we were away from home,” Evatt said.
“We felt that if we could lure them into that expansive shape, steal the midfield and then transition quickly we would create a lot of opportunities and that played out in the first half, in particular.”
Evatt revealed that he had been convinced to try something different by the way his side had handled themselves against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup a few days earlier.
Though beaten 5-1 on the night by the Premier League side, he felt his players’ work off the ball showed promise that they could alter their approach at Crawley.
He said: “I still think there were positives we could take out of Wednesday because Arsenal don’t concede many chances and first half in particular we were defensive and diligent and we could have should have taken the lead with two big chances and a penalty that was turned down. And other the mistakes, where normally in our division you don’t get punished, I thought there were parts of it that were good.
“And because we were so diligent out of possession on Wednesday it gave me the confidence to do that today and say ‘OK, we’ll sacrifice a little bit more’.
“Once they were into that really expansive shape, where the back three are spread across the width of the pitch, if we can steal it, turn it over quickly and move forward quickly then we can be in business. I think we saw that first half.”
Wanderers have also confirmed that defender Chris Forino will be out of action for two months with a hamstring injury.
The centre-half pulled up in the second half at Arsenal and his absence leaves Bolton with little cover in central defence until the international break.
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