Bolton boss Evatt: ‘We make our own destiny’
MANAGER SPEAKS OUT AHEAD OF TOUGH CLASH WITH SALFORD TONIGHT
BOLTON Wanderers are back in League Two action tonight when they make the short journey to take on Salford City.
The game had originally been due to take place in early February, but was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
Wanderers take on a Salford side now on their third manager of the season in the form of Gary Bowyer.
The Ammies are ninth in the table heading into the encounter, three points from the play-offs, and have won their last two games in succession.
And the Whites are third in League Two at present and will be aiming to consolidate their position in the top three with a victory.
Before the game, Wanderers manager Ian Evatt explained the decision yesterday to end Marcus Maddison’s loan spell with the club early.
He said: “I think we should respect Marcus’s privacy at this time and some things are more important than football.
“Mental health and mental wellbeing is vital to us and Marcus deserves all the support he needs to get himself happy and in a better place.
“He has all along had my full support and he’ll go on even when I’m not his manager to have my full support, and whatever help I can give him moving forwards, I’m always on the end of a phone.”
Turning to tonight’s match, Evatt continued: “It’s a difficult game but one we’re looking forward to.
“We know what we’ve got to do and fortunately for us, it is now firmly in our own hands. We’re the makers of our own destiny, so we have to go there and play as well as we can.
“There was slight frustrations with the Easter weekend, on Friday even though we didn’t play well I thought we scored a legitimate goal and then Monday we did play really well and got nothing. Thankfully for us, an excellent second half on Saturday got us three points.”
“We have to take each game as it comes on merit and we’ll look at the opposition and analyse them and pick a team accordingly.
“A lot of the lads are in a good routine now and barring any mishaps injury-wise, the team are in good form, they know their own jobs, they’re playing well and we’ve got good competition for places.
“The good news is Antoni Sarcevic has come through another good session with the rehab guys today and the physios, so he’s progressing really well.”
“The pleasing thing for me is we’re only going to improve and get better. We’re finding solutions and working on solutions to the different look that the opposition give you.
“For instance on Saturday, previous home games, teams have come in and camped in low blocks and for all the analysis work we do, we can say to the players this is what we think they’re going to do, but like Harrogate on Saturday who, credit to them, came and really had a go at us.
“The players have to find the solutions themselves on the pitch, and we can’t wait until half-time for me to make the changes and for me to show them where the space is – they have to figure that out for themselves.
“That just comes from practice, from analysts’ clips analysing games of what we can and can’t do better, if they do this, this is what we do, if they do that, this is what we do, and eventually we’ll pick it up and do it naturally.
“But at the moment we’re still very much part of the learning process but we’re doing very well.”
“Salford are unbeaten at home all season, so it’s going to be a tough game, there’s no two ways about it and they are definitely trying to get into that top seven and rightly so with what they spend and the players they’ve got at the football club.
“But for us, it’s about what we do and we’ll go there and try and implement the gameplan, try and take the game to them.
“The pleasing thing for me moving forwards really is every game we look at now from now until the end of the season, probably other than the last game, there’s going to be something at stake and teams are either trying to make the play-offs, trying to stave off relegation or get promoted themselves, so I think it’ll be a good game.”