Negative reaction to Wanderers’ recent performances has caught some of Ian Evatt’s squad by surprise.

With the team still nestled among the play-off places and boasting the joint-best defensive record in the division, there have been a few wrinkled noses inside the dressing room at some of the criticism which has been aimed the players’ way.

Evatt has advised his players to focus on their preparations for Cambridge United and getting a result which will be the only effective answer to the naysayers.

“Some of the players have been confused to why there seems to be an element of negativity surrounding the club at the moment,” Evatt revealed. “From their perspective, there’s progression - we’re in the top six and that was our aim and ambition.

“We understand that we haven’t played great but you’re going to have spells like that in a football season and you have to manage those spells. But I’ve told them we can’t be sensitive, we just need to maintain our focus, stick to what we believe in, work extremely hard and then make sure we give it our best possible shot and that’s what I believe we’ll do.

“Now that may or may not be good enough come the end of the season, but we’re going to give it everything, we can guarantee that and there isn’t any stone being left unturned at all by anybody. We’re working extremely hard and they’ve done so this week, and we’re going to Cambridge with full belief we can get the right result.”

Evatt has commented on his own troubles picking a team of players who are in good form.

Whereas he can count on more options that ever before in most positions on the pitch, getting the blend between an effective system whilst also being able to use his most effective attacking players has been problematic.

But the manager maintains there is more quality in the group of players than has showed over an inconsistent six-week spell.

“The players know that when they perform well, they’re an extremely difficult team to beat, there’s no denying that,” he said. “You look at the results we’ve had against some of the top sides like Peterborough and those types of performances like against Wycombe, they’ve been exceptional.

“They’re capable, we know we’re capable and when we dip under that performance level it’s disappointing and we’ve all been disappointed this past month. Football seasons are a long time and we’ve got two away games now to show what we can do and show that other side of our game - the grit and determination what we showed at Accrington, though it would be nice to not have to come from two behind!

“We love being and working here and we want to do the very best we can for Bolton Wanderers and that starts on Saturday again.”