‘We have to be better than this’
BOLTON Wanderers play their first game of 2021 tomorrow when they take on Crawley Town.
Ian Evatt’s side go into the home clash aiming to build on the point gained on the road against Carlisle United on Boxing Day, when they fought back from three goals down to claim a share of the spoils.
It came at a cost, however, as wing-back Peter Kioso will not be available for Wanderers to face the Reds.
The Luton Town loanee was shown two yellow cards against the Cumbrians and must serve a one-game suspension before being available for selection.
That would have been for Tuesday’s game against Morecambe, but the clash was postponed after a coronavirus outbreak in the Shrimps camp.
And Evatt has confirmed there are no fresh injury concerns ahead of this Saturday’s match, believing there could be two or three changes from the last game.
He said: “It’s pretty much the same, only Peter will miss Saturday instead of Tuesday.
“We are looking at different options, there might be two or three changes from Saturday, but we’ll look in training and see how things work.
“Every game is tough and this league throws up different challenges. Even playing at home is throwing up challenges at the moment and 10 points from 11 games is simply not good enough. We have to be better.
“With no crowds in, away teams just love playing here. We have to rise to it and be better in our own game.
“Crawley had a fantastic result Tuesday, winning 2-1 away from home at Forest Green. I watched the game on iFollow and they change shape quite a bit so it isn’t easy to get a handle on them.
“From set pieces and dead ball situations I want to see a lot more. We need to defend with our lives.
“We have been scoring a fair number of goals in recent weeks but we need to cut out the mistakes at the other end of the pitch.”
With Kioso unavailable, there’s a chance that Gethin Jones will switch back to his preferred position on the right flank, with Harry Brockbank playing on the left to fill the void created by the switcharound.
Another position which comes under the spotlight is one of the three midfielders, as Andrew Tutte came in for Lloyd Isgrove to add more steel in the engine room last time out.
Isgrove replaced Alex Baptiste at halftime of the draw against Carlisle and Evatt confirmed this was a tactical switch, so the established back three of Baptiste, Ricardo Almeida Santos and Ryan Delaney could continue.