Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt eyes semi-final boost at Accrington

Defeat at Wycombe on Saturday dented an impressive run of results for the Whites, who had moved temporarily into third spot in League One.

Wanderers were unable to find the extra gear necessary to claim something at Adams Park but will get a chance to make immediate amends at Accrington Stanley in the Papa Johns Trophy semi-final.

A sell-out away contingent will make the trip across Lancashire hoping to see their side progress to the final of a knockout competition for the first time since 2004, and play at Wembley for the first time since 2011.

Evatt feels is players are capable of shrugging off the disappointment of Wycombe and concentrating on the one-off knockout affair.

“We have a great opportunity to get through to a Wembley cup final,” he said. “That result hurt because I think we can all feel what type of team we are, we just didn’t show it. But we will dust ourselves down and go again.

“I thought the fans were magnificent, they backed the players at the end, they could see the effort and determination. We had pinned them in and not quite got the equaliser.”

The forecast for the Wham Stadium at present is cold, wet and windy – meaning Wanderers will have to find a better way to cope with the conditions than they did at the weekend.

According to Whoscored.com, Dion Charles touched the ball just 11 times against Wycombe, once inside the penalty box, while Victor Adeboyejo was more heavily involved – mustering two shots on goal – but still struggled to make an indent.

“It is hard, the pitch is tight and in those windy conditions there was literally no space to run in behind. The one thing both strikers have is good athleticism and they need space to work in, and it was very limited,” Evatt explained.

“We weren’t at our fluid best, of course not, and I don’t think the conditions were conducive to that, but you have to find different ways and we didn’t. If ever there was a stereotypical win for them, this was it.”