Ian Evatt will take charge of his 150th game as Wanderers boss against Port Vale this weekend.

The club has come a long way since Evatt took charge in the summer of 2020, and he admits it has been a “wild ride”.

But the boss refuses to rest on his laurels and believes there is still more to come from his side as they aim to keep climbing the League One table.

“As I’ve said sometimes, I’m so ambitious and always looking to achieve the next thing,” Evatt told The Bolton News.

“But when I look back, not just at my time here but my time as a manager, to have two promotions, two top 10 finishes and now a cup final in those five years.

“It has been a great start to management. I love my job, I love working here and hopefully this is just the start of things to come.

“150 on Saturday - who would have thought in the first few months of the lockdown period I would still be sat here?

“But thankfully I was given the time to build and time to progress. We have had our moments, as every football club has, but what we have done is stick together in the good times and the bad. Hopefully, now we can clearly see signs of progression.”

Evatt currently has a better win ratio than any post-War Bolton manager, having won 73 of his first 149 games in charge.

“I am extremely proud to be the manager of this football club,” he added. “It is an absolute blessing, it is pleasure and a privilege.

“Every day I drive past this wonderful stadium and still get the same feeling in the pit of my stomach. It is absolutely great, and long may that continue.

“I still feel like we have got unfinished business, we have got work to do. I am thoroughly enjoying it.”

Attention now turns to Port Vale, who currently sit 12th in the table as they aim to build on last season’s promotion.

The games continue to come thick and fast over the next few weeks and Evatt knows it will not be easy, but he feels the squad is in a good place.

“It’s going to be a tough little run because we have got obviously Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday at the top of the division,” he said.

“We have got Portsmouth away, which is always a challenge. And then you have got games like Port Vale and Morecambe in between where those teams are scrapping and fighting for every point they can get.

“It will be tough but the players are in really good form. Obviously, we have got the added boost of the cup-tied ones returning for Saturday.

“They are fresh, hungry and ready to go. We will pick a team accordingly and attack it as best we can.”