WANDERERS must keep faith with their squad rotation policy – if the heavy Christmas schedule is going to work, insists Ian Evatt.
The Bolton boss made five changes to his side for the 1-0 win against Lincoln City last night and is expected to switch his team again for the trip to Fleetwood Town on Friday.
Though Carlos Mendes Gomes is now unavailable after linking up with the Guinea Bissau squad for the African Cup of Nations and Gethin Jones will be playing his final game before joining the Australia squad for the Asian Cup next month, Evatt is confident his whole squad can chip in to keep the Whites in promotion contention – whether they start the game, or not.
“Before the Christmas period, which I believe begins on the 23rd, we had four games in nine days – and I think it is impossible to play at the intensity I want, and to be a team at our best, to keep going with the same 11,” he remarked. I have faith in our team; we have good players, and there will be rotation.
“Today demonstrated that when new players are introduced, they can perform well, and this trend will continue.”
“We can rotate before the game, but we can also change things during the game.” It was fantastic for Josh (Sheehan) to come on as a replacement and provide a pinpoint cross for Eoin’s terrific header.”
Toal scored the winner on the same ground he netted his first goal in English football nearly 12 months earlier.
Evatt revealed that the Northern Irishman nearly didn’t start the game at Lincoln, having picked up an injury earlier in the week.
He explained: “He was the one doubt, suffering from a bit of a knock to his ankle, but Eoin being Eoin he just wanted to get on with it and play. I am delighted for him to get the goal.
“He likes playing here, we like playing here. We have a good record here and scoring in front of those away fans is a brilliant feeling.
“I just wish we could bottle it. Seeing all the team celebrate in front of them is incredible. We love making them happy and they were amazing for us today.”
Wanderers had 71 per cent possession at the LNER Stadium and Evatt felt his side’s reliability in possession was a key factor in them bringing home three points.
“You are not defending when you have the ball,” he explained, “but if your opponent does not have the ball, they cannot score.” We had so much of the ball that they had relatively little.
“We broke their spirit at times, and our counter-press was excellent.” That is how we want to play the game, and we did it really well today.”
Wanderers head to Fleetwood Town on Friday, who have not won in their past eight games in all competitions.
“Fleetwood is always a difficult place to go,” Evatt told me. “And for us, it’s simply recognising what good performance looks like and attempting to emulate it.” We feel that if we continue to play well, we will succeed our ambitions but that is a long way off yet.”
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