THIS team’s appetite for self-sabotage really does know no end.
Just when it seemed acceptable to move on, to isolate September’s drama and concentrate fully on a promotion chase, Wanderers have found a way of dragging everyone back down to that place again.
Spectacular fails such as this can no longer be described as isolated incidents. It seems the fate of Ian Evatt and his players is to periodically combust, and usually when the stakes are at their highest. It is a deeply unsatisfactory situation, and you cannot blame supporters for voicing their anger at Edgeley Park.
There are fundamental issues which must now be addressed by Bolton’s hierarchy. They extend beyond the manager, albeit this has all happened on his watch, mutating over the course of 2024. Wanderers now boast an expensive squad, with players who are quite simply not pulling their weight.
Reminiscent of his early days at the helm, Evatt seems to have too many players who are either unable to handle the expectations of playing for a club like Bolton or have become lost in its luxuries.
This team has been given all the indulgences of modern football and has lost its edge as a result. The queue for the treatment room is long, but one might also ask why.
Stockport’s hunger was questioned by their manager, Dave Challinor, in midweek, following a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Wycombe. His players issued the perfect response against Bolton, looking hungry from the first minute and pressing with an urgency their visitors simply couldn’t repel. This felt an all-too-familiar tale, just one played out by the Mersey on a cold November afternoon rather than Wembley in May.
Wanderers had provided some signs that they could mix it up against different styles, with wins at Stevenage, Crawley and Northampton plus the previous league triumph at home to Peterborough helping to restore some of that damaged faith in the past six weeks.
Once again, though, they have managed to tear down mended bridges in one fell swoop. This was a performance which may have been affected by illness in the camp but was certainly not forgiven because of it.
The decision faced by Bolton’s board, for perhaps the third time since May, is whether there is an end in sight. Evatt deserves respect for what he has done to build this club from ground zero into the one which has gone close to Championship football in the last two seasons. In these dark times, let’s not forget there have been some very good ones too.
Is there ample evidence on what we have seen so far this season to suggest this team is going to challenge for the top six again? Or better still, the top two place initially targeted?
If the answer to that question is no, then to delay the inevitable is only going to waste time, money and expend the goodwill built up by the club in recent years to ensure there will be 20,000-plus for the next home league game against Blackpool, regardless.
The previous international break gave Evatt a chance to make changes he felt were needed, swapping captains to bring out better form from Ricardo Santos, chopping Matt Craddock from the first team staff and bringing back Lewis Duckmanton to the dugout. The manager was backed to continue, and he did get a run of results which put promotion back on the table.
But how many times can Bolton’s counter climb the ladders and then hit a snake? It is an exhausting loop which could affect the long-term future of a club that based on so many different metrics, should not be playing its football in the third tier.
This is not a case of supporter entitlement. The club cannot seriously question a fanbase that stuck with them through the darkest days, watched from their laptops in their tens of thousands during Covid, bought season tickets in record numbers on their return to the stadia, and who continue to make Bolton Wanderers one of the biggest deals at this level.
Those who pay to watch are entitled to more than they are getting at the moment, however, and despite the rugged front often presented by the manager, he knows it too.
Post play-off final, Evatt knew he would be treading a fine line and he has withstood a few mighty nudges to try and throw him off-balance so far. Whether this defeat proves the push that sends him tumbling, only a few people in the positions of power can decide.
There is nothing that the board will have witnessed in a second-half capitulation at Stockport which will help the manager’s cause. Already down to a Will Collar goal after a meek and mild first half, Wanderers went into full reverse after the break.
Stockport had already exploited gaps behind Josh Dacres-Cogley – one of the players hardest-hit by the in-camp virus – and given Will Forrester a torrid time as the wider centre-half.
During the second half, County ran riot. Kyle Wooton pounced on a rebound after a marvellous save from Nathan Baxter, Fraser Horsfall headed home a corner, Louis Barry punished a terrible error from Jay Matete and then sub Odin Bailey completed the rout with a low drive late on.
The giant scoreboard which stands on the slim Railway End, it’s outlandish lettering seemingly counting down towards some world-changing event, reflected a seismic scoreline.
Bolton’s players walked apologetically towards the Bolton fans, a good number of whom had pushed to the front of the stand to make their dissenting voices heard. Some of the younger ones looked visibly shocked by what they were hearing.
Evatt had kept a sensible distance, not wanting to antagonise. But he heard every word.
A meeting called by the dressing room after the game shows a vague sense of accountability, but those with experience know football doesn’t really work like that. The man whose head is on the block was the one whose name was chanted in positive terms before kick-off, and in such negative ones, once again, after the final whistle.
This is a cruel and unusual dichotomy that must end before Bolton can escape this division. Whether the board or the players make the next move, only time will tell.
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