THE next yardstick in Wanderers’ promotion chase arrives in 22 days, at which point Ian Evatt believes the League One table will start to sort itself out.

Braced for another postponed game at Barnsley when the October international break comes around, today’s game at Reading is the first of six in league and cup to be played until Evatt has another chance to collect his thoughts.

Planning around an international break is becoming increasingly difficult at Bolton, with the number of players travelling to play for their country starting to increase. And Evatt has found out this week with Eoin Toal and Dion Charles’s marathon journey to Slovenia and Kazakhstan that there are also downsides to having players operating at the highest level.

Evatt was able to take a few days off last week – a rarity in itself – but also worked on provisional gameplans for Reading, Peterborough, Port Vale, Stevenage and Carlisle, the five league fixtures that he hopes will yield enough points to maintain the Whites’ solid start.

“Including the EFL Trophy game against Manchester United there are six games leading up to the next international break and so we have been looking at that block of fixtures and putting together a plan,” explained the Bolton boss.

“It is tricky because the ones who have been away on international duty are the ones who are heavily involved in our starting XI at the moment.

“When you are doing match prep, ideally you want to use the week to set up a gameplan with and without the ball against Reading. It becomes really difficult when you had Josh Sheehan back today (Thursday) and Dion and Eoin Toal back Tuesday but both had been flying for 17 hours.

“Fortunately, a lot of what we do is the same. There are a few tactical tweaks in possession and out of possession, especially against the system that Reading play. But we are pretty grounded in what we do so there isn’t a lot of learning to be done for the players returning from international duty.

“The other players have had a reset after Salford and they have come back vibrant, ready to play again. When you watch the two games which took place over the break we didn’t lose out positionally so that gives the whole club a boost.

“We want to attack every game at the moment and this is a key time in the season, for me, up to that 10-game mark where the league really starts to take shape.

“We want to go for this next block of games and then see where we are at the next international break.”

Evatt has often talked about the two-points-per-game average, which if equalled or even surpassed is a fairly strong indicator of promotion form. And to hit 20 points after 10 games would require seven points from the next five league games.

Inside the camp the focus has been shifted towards performance, or rather the consistency therein. Wanderers have done a lot of their best work this season in the first half, establishing some commanding leads, but they have also struggled to maintain their dominance in the latter stages, giving a few late chances for opposing sides to scrap their way back into the contest.

Second in the table, with a chance to go top this afternoon, you would expect Evatt and Co to be content.

“Hey, we always need something to moan about,” shrugged the manager. “But we will look at the second half as best we can. It is something we have talked about. We want to maintain the level of performance for 90 minutes.

“We have played in fits and starts, had good spells, had electric and dynamic spells where we have kind of blown teams away, but we have not necessarily followed through with it. That is the next phase of our development, to try and make those spells longer and more consistent.”

Reading’s problems have been well documented this week and it remains to be seen what effect it will have on Ruben Selles’s young side.

The former Southampton boss has named two of the three youngest XIs this season in League One, in home wins against Cheltenham and Stevenage, at 22.4 and 23 average years, respectively.

Though this week’s point deductions have left the Royals in 21st position in the table, Evatt is not being lulled into a false sense of security.

“They are still a Category One academy, so they have some very good young players coming through the system,” he said. “They are very energetic and have a coach who was in the Premier League last season, so it is great for me to go up against him.

“They do a few quirky things, they are quick, they play a vertical shape with lots of bodies in central areas and they counter fast, press well. Take no notice of the league table because they have had a significant points deduction. It is early days and I think they will be a good team this season and a test for us.

“Obviously they have players in there who have played regular football in the Championship. It is a talented group and in years gone by they have invested heavily in the academy to make it Category One, which means you should start to produce some very good, technical young players.

“They made some signings towards the end of the window that I would think would impact their team as well.

“We have had some time to figure out a plan and hopefully it comes to fruition on Saturday.”