LEAVING the hurly burly of the transfer window and Saturday’s frenetic draw with Barnsley behind them – this might be a good week for Wanderers to get back on the road.

Players boarded the team bus at the Toughsheet Stadium on Monday afternoon in positive mood despite a weekend where nobody seemed to agree whether their performance against the Tykes had been a positive one, or otherwise.

Zac Ashworth’s equaliser and new signing Aaron Collins’ intriguing second-half cameo definitely helped the case for the former but the messy 15-minute spell early in the second half still seemed to linger in discussions long after the final whistle.

Wanderers cannot afford to look back and question their mixed reviews now. Neither Derby County nor leaders Portsmouth are in action on Tuesday night, which offers them a chance to claw back some of the lost ground on second and third spot.

Those games in hand have been banked for some time, now is the time to put them to good use.

Evatt has never been worried about saying his piece, even if he knows the subject matter might rub some up the wrong way.

We are, after all, heading to Cambridge – scene of an infamous post-match interview in October 2020 with some ill-chosen words that somehow made the Bolton boss the topic of BBC Five Live debate.

Fast forward a couple of years and the same sentiments were blurted out by Joey Barton when he was in charge of Bristol Rovers, to ne’er a shrug. In fairness, the former Newcastle United midfielder has rather raised the bar on his contentious quotes since then.

Evatt’s comments at the weekend about the negative murmurs he felt turned up the pressure on his players were not exactly in the same league, but they have caused a debate, and in that sense have probably fulfilled their purpose.

Whether football support, with 20,000-plus different opinions, will ever be as unwavering and unified as he appears to require is doubtful. But Wanderers are not about to change their game-plan now, midway through a season in which they are on currently course for automatic promotion.

Wanderers can be better playing from the back than they were against Barnsley, and have been on many occasions this season. Furthermore, for them to lose faith and confidence in that style of play at this stage of the game would be disastrous.

Perhaps a bit of distance is a good thing over the next couple of games? And with another road trip to come at Northampton Town on Saturday the Whites can guarantee a more loving mood around the stadium when they next play there against Wycombe on the eve of Valentine’s Day.

Just behind Cambridge’s Abbey Stadium is a little track ominously called ‘Cut Throat Lane’. And it has been just about as hospitable as it sounds.

Wanderers beat Roy McFarland’s Cambridge in the FA Cup fourth round back in January 2000 – two goals from Bob Taylor and one from Eidur Gudjohnsen cancelling out Trevor Benjamin’s early strike – but they have not won a league match at the Abbey Stadium since May 11, 1985, which was also the same day as the tragic Bradford Disaster.

Evatt has also encountered issues in his three visits.

Firstly, in October 2020, there was Billy Crellin, and all that. A conversation taken somewhat out of context by a social media clip which spread like wildfire and then forced the Bolton manager into a public apology. Antoni Sarcevic’s equaliser ensured a point that day but barely got a mention in the furore that followed.

The next season Bolton were dealt their first defeat by Cambridge, making a shaky start to gift Shilow Tracey an opening goal and then failing to puncture their hosts’ impressive defences thereafter. Intriguingly, the U’s Australian left-back, Jack Iredale, caught the eye that day and would be a Wanderers player by the following summer.

Last season the frustration continued. A rare goalless draw, a red card for Kyle Dempsey, and some beef with referee Darren Drysdale were the main talking points as the wait to beat Cambridge on their own turf continued.

For the first time, Wanderers will come up against a Cambridge side without Mark Bonner in charge. Ex-Millwall and Gillingham man Neil Harris was appointed in December and a four-game unbeaten run since a home defeat to Leyton Orient on New Year’s Day suggests he is doing well.

Ex-Wanderers forward Elias Kachunga has featured prominently this season, as has another former Bolton target Sullay Kaikai.

For Evatt and his team, a chance to put undisputable proof on the board that Plan A can run smoother than it did at the weekend. He might encounter resistance in some quarters convincing fans that his way is the right one but, as the old football proverb goes, the table doesn’t lie.