IAN Evatt has promised clubs involved in the relegation race that his Wanderers won’t be signing off their League One campaign early.
Having watched his side rack up their third successive win, with Kieran Sadlier and Amadou Bakayoko on target at Cheltenham, the Bolton boss knows next weekend’s game against Fleetwood will have a big say on who goes down to League Two.
Although the Cod Army have a home game against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, where they could improve their odds dramatically with victory, it looks likely that the fight between themselves and Gillingham will go down to the wire.
Evatt wants to finish a positive campaign on a high, potentially moving into ninth spot if results go his way.
“We have got one game to go,” he said. “We wanted to go on an unbeaten run and win games back-to-back, and I think that was the best of them. We want one more big performance at home now.
“Looking at the league table there is something riding on the game. They will expect us to be professional and we will be, don’t worry about that.
“We want to win and we will be going all out to do that.”
Victory against Cheltenham was achieved with a strong second-half show.
Sadlier opened the scoring with a close-range finish after good work from Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, then Bakayoko netted his 13th of the season from the penalty spot.
There were a few nerves late on when a poor clearance from James Trafford allowed sub Aaron Ramsey to race through the middle to halve the deficit, but Evatt maintained his side were well worth three points.
“I thought we were outstanding second half in particular. I think we completely dominated and controlled the game,” Evatt said.
“It looked like we could score, kept the ball really well and then Traff, a young goalkeeper, makes a crazy decision and then it gives us a couple of minutes of awkwardness, but overall I thought it was a very good away performance because Cheltenham are a good side, especially here. I was pleased with that.”
Evatt laughed off an exchange between the excellent Dapo Afolayan – who had won the penalty – and sub Bakayoko, as they argued over who would place the ball on the spot.
“The most important thing is that we scored,” he said. “That’s all that really matters, I thought Dapo was absolutely brilliant today. I thought their players targeted him, the manager at times targeted him, he won the penalty and obviously he wants to take it, but Baka’s in good form as well and providing we score, it doesn’t really matter. We see those types of discussions happen all the time and for me the most important thing is the team and the team won the game “Dion’s our penalty taker and he was off the pitch so unless I can bring Dion back on, someone else has to take it and that’s that. It’s the end of the discussion for me.”
Wanderers are now seven unbeaten and moved on to 70 points – which, unusually, is 10 points off the current top six at this stage of the season.
Evatt remains happy that his side is heading in the right direction and is already looking towards going one better next term.
“What is most pleasing is that we have a lot of injuries and the team is still ultra-competitive, we still have options off the bench,” he said.
“We are pleased with where we are at. When we get this squad ready and get the players back then I think we will be a good team.
“We are still a work in progress and there is still plenty of room for improvement but I think everyone is getting excited. It’s head down now and get ready for a big summer.”
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