Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt has compared Bristol Rovers to “wounded animals”, suggesting that his team will have to be wary of facing a side looking for a response.
The Gas host Bolton on Saturday afternoon having produced their worst performance of the season on Tuesday night in a 3-0 drubbing at Leyton Orient in which they mustred just one shot which was off target.
Rovers have produced just one shot on target in their last 340 minutes of football and haven’t managed one in the league since Luke McCormick’s winning effort away at Mansfield Town a fortnight ago.
Matt Taylor will be back in the dugout this weekend though after taking a leave of absence to deal with a family emergency which saw him absent from the FA Cup success over Barnsley and the defeat at Orient and Evatt believes that facing a side looking to respond is a “dangerous” proposition.
“It is delicate, all we can really say is that we hope Matt and his family are okay,” Evatt said. “That is where his priority should be. Football is a game we love but it is only a game. Some things are more important, and family definitely comes first.
“They have a good squad of players, no doubt about it, and wounded animals are usually dangerous ones so they will look for a reaction at home. Their record at home is not bad.
“For us, it’s just a case of concentrating on producing our best. There are some big games ahead but this is the one we need to focus on for now.”
The Whites currently sit in seventh place, lower than where they would’ve hoped to be at this stage of the campaign on the back of last season’s play-off final disappointment. However, following a poor start to the campaign which resulted in four points from the opening five matches, they have certainly picked up.
It’s still not been a stellar campaign for the Wanderers’ standards but a 3-1 comeback victory at home to Mansfield on Tuesday night was Bolton’s third win in four across all competitions, having drawn the other away at Cambridge United, and Evatt has called for his team to use their trip to the Mem as another step in the right direction as they look to build consistency going into the second half of the season.
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“I can only control my own mindset, I can help with the staff and players, and we are not happy with where we are but that is primarily down to the first five games which gave us a poor and difficult start,” the Bolton boss declared.
“I am trying to move on from that, and the players are trying too, so when you go on these good runs you have to fight really hard to try and maintain them. We have had some low moments, a couple in particular, and I don’t need to discuss them again, but the players have always responded in the right way.
“If you take the following 12 games we have picked up a lot of points, we are a team in form, and not necessarily one which has been consistent. We haven’t hit top gear, nowhere near, in fact.
“We have done it in spells, we have done it in moments, but it’s our aim to do it more consistently. If we can then we are right in the mix.
“It is okay to fly under radar, be an underdog, certainly within the camp. I think the players respond to that mentality really well, so fingers crossed we can keep winning games.
“I speak about my own personal record but a lot of these players have been there for that journey. When you become used to winning it can become ‘why are you not winning by more’ but you shouldn’t take winning for granted and we have done it consistently.”