Ian Evatt highlighted the mentality of the players to go and win games of football as a big reason for the recent victories against Accrington Stanley and Burton Albion.
“I’m delighted with the players’ attitude and application. Having got the equaliser (on Tuesday), it would’ve been easy for them to settle for a point.
“It was really funny to see Baka celebrate on his own and the rest of the team were beckoning him back to the halfway line to go again. But that’s the attitude of the players. They knew they had a chance and wanted to go on and win the game, and eventually we got that winning goal.”
Scoring goals late on has been a feature of the Wanderers’ game in the two recent league victories – particularly in Tuesday’s win against Burton Albion, with Amadou Bakayoko equalising on 87 minutes before Jón Daði Böðvarsson’s winner eight minutes into added time and Evatt believes the way his team is set up to play leads to defences being breached at the death.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we score late goals. We probe and ask the opposition questions. Tuesday night was frustrating for a long period, the disruption in the game was incredible really. I think the ball was only in play for 49 [minutes] out of 98 [minutes], nearly 100 minutes.
“It’s so frustrating, but we need to manage those moments and what we can do to make sure the tempo and speed stays in our game when we get the opportunities. I thought in the second half we did slightly better, definitely the last 20 minutes we did. The subs made a real impact and I’m delighted for the two forward lads to get the goals.”
Wanderers were backed by over 50% of the crowd at Accrington last weekend and over 16,000 turned out at the University of Bolton Stadium. Evatt believes patience from the supporters helped contribute to the latest Sky Bet League One victory.
“I thought the fans were outstanding Tuesday night because we were all frustrated and it would have been easy for them to be so frustrated, and in turn affect our players. But they stayed positive, they stayed with us, and when you’re together like we are at the moment as a football club, then you create moments like we’ve done on Saturday and Tuesday night.
“We can feed off that atmosphere, the players can feed off it. And if we can create that cauldron like it was that last 20 minutes or so, from minute 1’, when the score is 0-0, it’s going to be a really tough place to come. So, just stick with us, and keep backing us like Tuesday night. The fans were were excellent and the players responded and got us the win.
“If we can stay together, stick together, keep supporting each other and be positive, I think we’ve got a good season on the horizon.”