WANDERERS might have to be marathon men if they want to succeed in league and cup this season.

Ian Evatt’s side start their assault on the Carabao Cup tonight against Barrow, fresh from a morale-boosting opening day victory against Lincoln City.

The big topic of debate within football is of new rules on timekeeping, aimed at reducing time-wasting and keeping the ball in play for longer – a policy that Evatt has championed since his early days as Bolton boss.

But the knock-on effect of a 106-minute game at the weekend was a greater physical demand on the players – which could alter the manager’s thinking on a range of issues, from his cup selection against Barrow, to his transfer plans in the rest of the summer window.

“All I can do is speak for my own club and I think the ball-in-play time was 78 minutes at the weekend, which is a record as far I can remember as a manager,” he said.

“In terms of our physical data, as a team we covered 120-121kms, which is probably 10-11km more than we would on average, and that is in a game we controlled as well.

“It wasn’t a transitional game, we had a lot of possession and control, so I shudder to think what that data would look like in a transitional game, something more end-to-end.

“It is positive in general - it is just going to take some getting used to.”

The directives issues to officials by the PGMOL on timekeeping have given managers up and down the land something to think about over the last few days. Some reports say an extra NINE HOURS of football was played in the EFL as a result of time added on.

Evatt believes his use of substitutes may be affected to accommodate the longer spells of stoppage time, and he believes the added strain will require better physical conditioning.

“You may have to delay changes longer to impact games if they are going on for 15-20 minutes of added time. A 10-minute burst from a substitute all of a sudden becomes half an hour and we need to think about that,” he said.

“The most important thing is that everyone is fit enough to play for 110 minutes, they are conditioned to do so.

“It will be challenging but I am not moaning about it at all. It will be beneficial for the game and especially for us. But the back end could be a problem if you have had cup runs – there are 46 games in our league, not like the Premier League, and with all that added time it tots up to four or five extra games a season, which is a lot.

“We will have to monitor the data to see when players need a rest. We are fortunate that we have a good squad of players and add to that the guaranteed suspensions with the yellow cards that have been flying around. It will be a season of learning, I think.

“I am excited by it and I think it is a good thing for the paying customer as well, who pay to keep this industry thriving. At the moment it is novelty, everyone is trying to apply the rules as best they can, I just hope that continues into the season.”