Bolton Wanderers boss on ‘positive conversations’ over January targets

The Whites have tended to be active in the January window since Evatt took charge, and the Bolton chief says they have already highlighted multiple targets.

However, he believes that Ricardo Santos’ recent illness and George Thomason’s knee injury are proof that things can change very quick in football.

“We know what we want at the moment, and we have done the work on that, but the last week tells me everything I need to know about football and how things change overnight,” said Evatt.

“We are constantly making contingency plans, but we know what we want and there have been several positive conversations regarding the ones we have highlighted and targeted.

“Things are looking quite positive at the moment but there is still more or less a month to go before we get to January.”

Wanderers are back in action on Saturday when they make the trip to New Meadow to take on Shrewsbury (KO 12:30pm).

The Whites are unbeaten in their last four matches in all competitions, and Evatt is eager to keep building momentum heading into the busy Christmas period.

The Bolton boss expects his side will see lots of the ball but is wary of the Shrews’ threat from set-pieces.

He added: “We’re always respectful of the opposition and their strengths, but fundamentally it’s about our strengths.

“Every football team will try to play to their strengths and hide their deficiencies - that’s what football is about - so we’ll try to play the game our way. 

“I predict that we’ll probably have lots of possession, but it is about what we do with that possession.

“We then need to make sure that we are good against the ball, which we have been and obviously they’re a major threat from set plays.

“They’ve got three players - especially in that back three with (Tom) Flanagan, (Matthew) Pennington and (Cheyenne) Dunkley - who are very good at attacking the ball from set plays, so we need to make sure that we do our jobs, especially defensively.”