GETHIN Jones hopes Wanderers can soon start making life easier for themselves.

Having battled back into games against Bristol Rovers, Fleetwood, Burton and Accrington of late, Bolton have developed a reputation for being League One’s comeback kings.

But vice-captain Jones heads to Shrewsbury for a lunchtime kick-off this weekend with the intention of gaining control of the game much earlier on, at which point he feels the goals could flow.

“We are making life unnecessarily hard for ourselves at the moment,” he told The Bolton News. “When it clicks, we play well. Second half at Fleetwood we were completely dominant and got the two goals at the end, second half against Bristol Rovers we pinned them in again, got the goal.

“But we have said among ourselves that we need to work harder to get that early goal and then we feel like we can go on and get a few.

“You saw last season that even against the bigger teams, like Sunderland, if we get that one early goal then we can really go for it.”

Wanderers have not lost a game after scoring the first goal since Jones scored on the penultimate weekend of the 2020/21 season at home to Exeter City – a 2-1 defeat which briefly scuppered chances of automatic promotion.

The defender admits tension is playing its part, both for a group of strikers who are struggling to get themselves firing and a team which is aware of how important the first goal is becoming.

“I think we need to be a bit more relaxed around the box, and that isn’t just the strikers,” Jones said. “Some of the crossing detail needs to be better, including my own. Conor (Bradley is the same). We can all look at those little bits and make sure we improve, and then when you get on to the training ground analyse things in more detail.

“But anyone can see in that first 15 minutes we need to improve. Going 1-0 down we know we can get back into gams but we are just making it so difficult!”

Shrewsbury proved a happy hunting ground in January when Dion Charles scored a memorable winner not long after his arrival from Accrington.

Wanderers have won on their last three league visits to Shropshire, although the run was started by Phil Neal’s team in 1991 at the old Gay Meadow.

Jones is looking forward to the challenge.

“Shrewsbury is always a tough place to get a result, you know you will have to battle, and away from home it can be a different type of game,” he said.

“It was certainly a challenging one last year until Dion got that wonder goal right at the end.”