Can Bolton Wanderers get going now after Ian Evatt backing?

When the Bolton boss sat ashen faced on Saturday evening to discuss what had gone wrong in the 4-0 home defeat against Huddersfield Town, even he could not supply definitive answers on what happened next.

Whether the downward trend began at the turn of the year, with defeat at Wembley in the play-off final, or since a turbulent summer of missed targets and injury delays, the grand plan to turn Wanderers into automatic promotion contenders has gone completely awry, resulting in three successive defeats and no goals scored since the opening day win at Leyton Orient.

With the spiralling form has come a sea change in the mood of supporters, thousands of whom still sang his name prior to kick-off against Huddersfield but were left understandably frustrated by what they witnessed on the pitch.

The shift in tone was first noticed during the home defeat to Exeter City and will be difficult to shift without a speedy and significant upturn in performances and results.

With such uncertainly circling after the Huddersfield game, some had expected the club to take drastic action, or even for the manager to himself call time on his four years at the helm. Instead, following deep discussions with several senior figures on Sunday, Evatt was told to resume business as normal at Lostock on Monday morning, albeit with a strong reminder that current form must improve.

Alongside a Carabao Cup third round game at Arsenal and a Bristol Street Motors Trophy tie at home to Aston Villa’s Under-21s, there are four league games before the next international break, which serves as the next moment for all involved to draw breath and take stock.

Two home fixtures against Reading and Shrewsbury lie either side of two awkward away trips at Crawley and Northampton Town before mid-October, which with a maximum return would allow Wanderers to bring themselves back in line to something approximating promotion form.

Even as Evatt shrugged at questions on his own future at the weekend, he was bullish in the defence of his record at Bolton, and the legacy he did not want such defeats – or indeed the current league placing – to tarnish.

He brought up his historical win percentage, which now hovers on exactly 50 per cent, and the fact that it is higher than all of his post-war predecessors. It is also fair to point out that his 117 victories so far have been as a manager of a third or fourth-tier club, whereas the likes of Bruce Rioch, Colin Todd, Sam Allardyce and Ian Greaves operated almost exclusively in the top two divisions, a level to which the ambitious Evatt has always set his sights.

Based purely on games in the bottom two tiers, Rioch leads the way on 56.8 per cent win rate via his promotion winning 1992/93 season, with Evatt and Parkinson now level pegging on 50 per cent, Jimmy Armfield on 45.6 per cent and Phil Neal on 37.6 per cent.

Of more concern to many supporters is form since the turn of the year, and though Wanderers experienced some hellish injuries in the New Year to key players which did impact on their promotion chase last season, a zoomed-out view of their 2024 results is nevertheless quite revealing.

Wanderers have averaged 1.53 points per game since January 1, not including the play-offs, which is down on the likes of Exeter City (1.57), Blackpool (1.61), Wycombe (1.67) and Lincoln City (2.00). Established promotion contenders like Peterborough United (1.66) and the division’s newer bigger budgets like Birmingham City and Wrexham have also made a fast start.

Evatt has admitted that a “black cloud” of negativity has followed his team into the current season after the Wembley defeat in May, and as The Bolton News revealed a few weeks after the final, historical stats show only a quarter of clubs who lose a play-off final come back to win promotion by any means the following year. The average finishing position for a beaten club is actually 10th.

Efforts were made over the summer to get fresh voices and ideas into the camp, notably with the addition of Wigan Athletic coach Stephen Crainey, who had worked with Evatt in his playing days at Blackpool.

The Scot’s arrival may also have dislodged Matt Craddock from the first team coaching picture, and he was not in the dugout for Saturday’s game against Huddersfield. It is understood his departure was part of last weekend’s conversation with the board, alongside some changes in the analysis department and the return of Lewis Duckmanton to the training ground, following his summer appointment as a loan manager.

Rumours have also circulated about a change in captaincy on the pitch – something which had been strenuously denied by Evatt in pre-season but could also be viewed as a ‘Hail Mary’ in an effort to shake things up.

Whether further changes are planned remains to be seen, particularly in a tactical sense. Much has been made of the formation tweak this summer, which has seen Bolton revert to a front three and away from the 3-5-2 which had been used almost exclusively for the 12 months prior.

Now billed as a 3-4-2-1, the shift has coincided with a sharp decline in form for some of last season’s key men, not least the 2023/24 player of the year Josh Sheehan.

Injuries have again taken their toll on Evatt’s options, with Jordi Osei-Tutu the latest player to be ruled out for several weeks after a knee issue picked up at Barrow. The Bolton boss cannot afford to dwell on misfortune, however, if his team are to produce a response against Reading which will lift the gloom.

Evatt’s name may well be sung with gusto before kick-off again on Saturday, and thousands will be there once again to support their club, but the pressure is now squarely on the manager’s shoulders to make sure his team this time live up to their end of the bargain.