IAN Evatt admits he might have over-compensated for the play-off final defeat at Wembley in May by trying to change too much at Wanderers.

The Bolton boss brought in a new formation over the summer along with eight new signings but saw his side struggle over the first five games.

A return to 3-5-2 in Saturday’s high-pressure game against Reading brought about instant dividends with a morale-boosting 5-2 win, leaving the manager to own up to his mistakes after the final whistle.

“I am still learning, I am not the finished article at all and I’ll always critique myself first ahead of anyone else,” he told The Bolton News. “And maybe we tried to change too much.

“I think over the summer we focused too much on what went wrong in one game at Wembley. Everyone focussed on Plan Bs and I was one of those thinking deeply about how we do something else.

“But there wasn’t a great deal wrong with Plan A. I think if we didn’t get the injuries we got in the second half of last season we’re promoted. We were still one game away and we didn’t perform at Wembley.

“From that I think we all, myself included, felt like we needed to change something but there wasn’t a great deal wrong.

“The players love this system, they have been recruited for this system. You could see they were happier with some home comforts knowing jobs and what they had to do.

“We will improve too, it is a good starting point.”

Evatt brought in players like Szabolcs Schön, John McAtee and Jay Matete with a view to the new system but he remains confident there will be no player who is left stranded by the formational shift.

“We try to recruit players who are multi-functional,” he said.

“Everyone we signed was with an eye to still playing a 3-5-2 when we needed to so it shouldn’t really affect too many of them. There is nobody in our squad that can’t play either system.

“Obviously for some of the newer ones it is going to take a little extra time to get used to what we do but I thought there were some big performances out there, even the substitutes, the attitude was class.”

Wanderers might have scored five against Reading at home for the second season running but Evatt was not about to hail it as a perfect performance.

Defensively, improvements can still be made, and there were nervous moments in the second half when the Royals’ young team threatened to make a closer match of it.

“That’s my job to pick holes in it but it was never going to be fluid and our perfect best,” Evatt reasoned.

“What I liked about it was that we looked dangerous, scored five goals and could have scored more. Yes, the game was open at times, but that’s the way we play best and the way they play best.

“We dug in, started so well. Sometimes as a manager you just know, and I knew they were in a good place, they were on it. They really blew them away at the start of the game.

“I’m delighted for the players because, like me, they have taken a lot of stick as well. We all care deeply about this place and want to do right by it. Hopefully that is a step in the right direction.”