Ricardo Santos needs no reminder of how badly things panned out on his last visit to Fleetwood Town.
Sent off at 1-0 down with 17 minutes to go, the Bolton skipper barely had time to reach the dressing room before hearing his team had leaked another two goals in the Fylde Coast rain.
On a night for the hardiest of souls, Wanderers had shown their soft centre again.
“That was a horrible day, minging,” the defender recalled. “Along with Burton it was probably the worst game I have been a part of, just with the conditions and the game itself.
“It isn’t an easy place to play. Those teams can use that sort of stuff to their advantage and because we play in a bigger stadium I think we get used to not having the wind affect things as much, or having more time on the ball.
“It is going to be a tough game and we have to be ready for it.”
Pleasingly, Santos feels he and his team-mates will be better prepared for Fleetwood this season, developing a plan to work on the highest pressing teams in the division which – at times in his Bolton career – have been their Achilles heel.
“Teams now have technology, they do their homework, they see the way we play out from the back and they press high,” he said. “So, in some games now we might – not kick long – but miss out the midfielders a bit and hit the front man a bit earlier.
“I get more pressure because I am usually last man at the back. I suppose that makes it easier for me but I always expect myself to make sure the pass is a good one, the safe side or it can be easily controlled.”
Santos says he can understand some of the disappointment expressed by supporters over the last few weeks, as performances have failed to match high expectations.
He feels, however, that Wanderers could provide a timely boost this weekend at Fleetwood, building on what he felt was a resolute display at Cambridge.
“Within the team we speak all the time and we know there are games where we haven’t performed as well as we can,” he said.
“We know the gaffer puts standards on us every day, we have to work hard.
“We thought the Cambridge game could be a start to kick on, to be honest. I know we didn’t win the game but I thought there were a lot of positives from the game, the way we dealt with the corners and the long throws. There was a chance at the end – but I think we are getting better at that.
“Defensively, those or the sort of games where everyone has got to be on it.
“I think Demps (Kyle Dempsey) was all over the pitch before he got sent off. But we know we have to put the chances away – Dion (Charles) had one Geth (Jones) had one, and we just had to grind it out.”
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