INTENSITY is the word on everyone’s lips at Wanderers as they go for four wins on the spin in League One.

Second bottom Shrewsbury Town come to the Toughsheet Stadium on Saturday looking to derail Bolton’s recent revival, which has included consecutive league victories against Reading, Crawley and Northampton Town.

Ian Evatt has stressed the importance of a quick start in front of an expectant home crowd.

“I think it’s a case in point from my whole time here, when we get that first goal we are a difficult team to contain,” he told The Bolton News. “We become a more confident side.

“We have managed to start a few games fast now and we have to keep that going, especially here, we need to make it really difficult from the first whistle.

“We have to get out of the blocks quickly and then see where that takes us.”

Wanderers have an impressive record when scoring first, winning 85.9 per cent of games in which they have scored first since returning to the third tier in 2021.

Of the 71 occasions in which they have opened the scoring, the Whites have won 61, drawn six and lost just four, emphasising the importance of Evatt’s pre-match warning.

Since the 4-0 home defeat against Huddersfield Town, the manager and his players have managed to carefully get themselves back on to an even keel, returning to the top half of the table with their win at Northampton in midweek.

If Bolton managed to win their next two league games at home they would move to 19 points – not far away from the oft-quoted promotion target that Evatt has set his team over the last few seasons.

But he remains reluctant to announce that a corner has been turned for the time being, imploring his players to keep their focus.

“I don’t think we’re ever too far away from that pressure,” he said. “And in football in general you are only one game away from returning to all that, having nerves and losing confidence.

“It is so difficult to build but so quick to lose and drift away, so when you get these runs going you have to fight really hard to continue them and that’s our mindset, we have had a good few games but that’s it. We need to win our home games, Saturday and the one against Burton following the break, and if we do the start actually looks pretty solid.

“That’s the aim but we need to execute things as well as we did at Northampton and start as well as we did too.

“Tuesday night, apart from the last seven minutes, was probably as good as we have been for a few months, it was certainly the most complete performance.

“We feel like the players are comfortable with the shape, we feel that long-term the squad will improve and injuries are returning all the time.

“What we have learned already this season is that it’s great to win games but we have to work really hard to keep the runs going. Bad ones are always around the corner, they just are, it’s part of the industry, so we need to keep it going.”