IAN Evatt has pledged to dive into the root cause of a damaging “cycle” which threatens to wreck Wanderers’ season.
The Bolton boss admits a worrying trend has developed where spells of good form and performances are spoiled by outlying heavy defeats, which also contribute to flashpoints with the fanbase.
Already this term we have seen a 4-0 home defeat to Huddersfield Town and a 5-0 defeat at Stockport County – two results which put both the manager and his players under heavy fire from sections of the support.
And though Evatt is confident his team can respond when they next take to the field against Blackpool this weekend, he is keen to investigate the reasons why the wheels have flown off so spectacularly at various stages.
“We have had that type of Stockport performance in us. It happened last season at times, it happened the season before at times, and it has happened twice this season,” he told The Bolton News. “And whether it is mental fragility, switching off, a lack of focus – there is nobody who dives into these things more than me and I am trying my absolute best alongside the rest of the staff to find a reason, and then a solution.
“The floor can’t be that low with us. When you lose a game like that, it makes it easy to pick up and remember the negatives. Everyone focusses on Huddersfield, they don’t think about Stevenage or Northampton away, or Peterborough at home, the good performances are completely forgotten about, and I kind of understand it.
“And I know it is my job to fix it. I need to make sure in these times that the players understand all is not lost, there is still a lot to play for but we need to tighten up on certain things.
“If we can do that, I honestly believe we still have a chance this season. But as I have said before, it’s the team that stays the course, it isn’t the one who is top in November, there are still 32 games to go, that’s a lot of points. And it won’t be anything like the points total of last season, I can guarantee that.”
George Thomason should return to training this week, with Carlos Mendes Gomes, Eoin Toal and Kyle Dempsey following not far behind, which gives Evatt reason for optimism as the club move towards the end of the year.
“The next five league games are all winnable and it starts with Blackpool at home,” he said. “If we can go on a good run, which this team is capable of doing, get some bodies back, which is looking promising at the moment, there is no reason why we can’t have a good run like the one we were on prior to Saturday in the league and fire ourselves by Christmas very close to that top two.
“It the repairs some of the damage which has occurred this season.
“But what I want to avoid is us going on a good run, then having a catastrophic failure like we did at Stockport, than having to rebuild again and start from scratch.
“We have to stop that cycle and find a better level of consistency for longer periods of time. That’s my job.
