Bolton Wanderers boss ready for a 'shootout' at Cambridge

With Derby County and Portsmouth not in action, Bolton have a big chance to claw some points back on the top two.

Despite extending a run to six league games unbeaten, Evatt’s side emerged from Saturday’s 3-3 home draw with Charlton feeling short-changed. But the Bolton boss is encouraged by the fact his side are scoring goals and creating chances as well as anyone in the division right now.

Only Peterborough United have averaged more goals-per-game so far and while Wanderers’ defensive stability has been called into some question of late, their goal-scoring power seems to be stronger than ever despite the absence of leading marksman Dion Charles.

“Conceding three goals is very, very rare for us,” Evatt said of the Charlton drawn. “In terms of chances, Charlton had an xG of 0.4, which is virtually nothing, so when we score three at home is very frustrating because we should clearly win from that position.

“We had to score three wonderful, very well-worked goals to get a point from that game in the end and it is something we have discussed, the one per cents, the finer details. We will try and nail them down as best we can.

“But we are scoring goals as a team too. Over the last couple of years we have talked a lot about our clean sheet record and that you must give credit to the attackers for keeping them, just as much as the defenders or the goalkeepers. It works the other way too.

“If we don’t have that clean sheet at Cambridge then we have to find other ways to score as a team. We can do that, and if we have to out-score the opposition we can do that, we can take it to a shootout. I have no issues with that.

“The most important thing is the resilience we showed. It would have been easy for the players to feel sorry for themselves, having twice gone behind in the game, all the injuries, suspensions, the number of fixtures we have had. But they keep going, they don’t know when they are beat.”

Aaron Collins has yet to get off the mark following his move from Bristol Rovers on deadline day – but Jon Dadi Bodvarsson has now scored twice in his last two games off the bench against Wycombe and Charlton.

Evatt is confident his new striker signing will soon be among the goals too.

“We have to cut Aaron some slack, it is completely different to what he had been used to at Bristol Rovers,” he said. “We are seeing flashes and it is my job to make them more consistent.

“It is quite a common theme at the moment with our recruitment, we don’t see the best of someone until they grow and get used to us. But they tend to get going and there’s no reason to suspect it won’t happen for Aaron – he is affecting games but there are things we need to integrate into his game which suit the way we play. And it will happen.

“For now, everyone needs to step up and take responsibility to put the ball in the back of the net, regardless of whether they are a defender, a midfielder or an attacker. And we are sharing that around quite well at the moment.”