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George Thomason’s return to fitness has come at exactly the right time forWanderers, says Ian Evatt.
The midfielder, who has been out of action for the last six weeks with a hamstring injury, is poised to return to the squad for Saturday lunchtime’s crunch clash with his former club Blackpool.
Knowing the importance of a result and the pressure riding on the occasion, Evatt reckons the 23-year-old’s comeback could be a timely boost.
“If you were in the trenches, he’d be one of the first players I’d call upon,” he said. “That is why I made him the captain of this club.
“Jus having him and Gethin Jones around the training ground again this week, the players have responded to his voice, his attitude, his enthusiasm, and talk about A for Attitude, he has certainly got that.
“It is great that we have him back and fingers-crossed we can keep him in one piece.”
One of a handful of players and staff with Bloomfield Road connections, Thomason was released as a teenager by Blackpool but has reserved some of his best games in a Bolton shirt for his former employers.
“George scored a couple of goals against them last season, which I know he enjoyed, and he is not the only one with Blackpool connections, there’s Matt Gilks, Stephen Crainey, myself,” Evatt said.
“We have all got an incredible amount of respect for that club but it stops once the game kicks-off on Saturday.
“Once the final whistle goes we’ll continue to respect it but there will be nobody fighting harder for three points than our lot on Saturday. That has to be the mentality we take into the game.”
After Wanderers saw a decent spell of form come to an untimely end at Stockport before the international break, Evatt is confident both he and his team can win over some of their critics with another unbeaten run.
“The ceiling and the floor cannot have that sort of disparity,” he said. “It was at Stockport, and we have had to take the criticism, I have had to take it too.
“It is not the first time, probably won’t be the last, but we have always found a way to respond.
“We have got some games coming up which we can rebuild some faith and trust with the fanbase by winning, the local games in particular.
“Fingers crossed now we can do that and start piecing back together what was a pretty decent recovery prior to Stockport. We are still in touch, there is nothing given away yet, we just need to be a more consistent version of ourselves.
“We felt like we were getting there and then, wallop! We get hit with that, so we need to find out how to guard against that in the future but also how to respond again.”
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