Bolton Wanderers had transfer plan for Irish stars, confirms Ian Evatt

The former Derry City defender has overcome a few injuries since his arrival in August and is now pushing hard for his first start in League One.

Evatt admits the 23-year-old Northern Irishman is already ahead of schedule after cutting his teeth in the B Team and cup competitions.

“He is doing fantastically, he really is close to playing [in the league],” he told The Bolton News. “We have looked at lots and lots of players from Ireland.

“Eoin came in, his attitude has been first class, he is a good person and we knew he was a good player, but he has actually surprised me with how good he can be, and how good he looks.

“At the minute those three are doing really well back there and we’ve got Jack that can play left side centre back, but Eoin can play across the three. He’s really fast.”

Wanderers have retained the services of ex-striker Eoin Doyle as an unofficial scout for the League of Ireland after he returned to St Patrick’s last season.

And Evatt says he considered moves for a handful of young players who came across to play in England this year.

“There have been other ones that we watched closely,” he said. “The lad that came on for Fleetwood in the second half, Promise (Omochere), we watched him. We watched the lad that went to Lincoln, (Danny) Mandriou, we’re aware of all these players. We watched the one that went to MK Dons, (Darragh) Burns.

“We’re aware of all these players, but obviously the ones that we feel will help us, we’ll progress, if we’ve got somebody in that position already that we feel is slightly better at this stage then we’ll stick with them, but we’re well aware of that market and there’s lots of good work between Chris (Markham) and Doyler and everyone else, our recruitment analysts are doing some really good work.”

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