Boss Eyes Big Week

Ian Evatt wants his team to plunder the points to make it an ‘excellent’ start to the season.

Evatt’s men return to action with a trip to MK Dons tonight after football was put on hold last weekend following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Whites then entertain Peterborough United on Saturday before a likely two-week break from League One action due to international call-ups.

And Evatt is targeting two positive results to build on the work put in so far in claiming eighth place in League One with 11 points on the board – as well as winning two of three cup ties in the Carabao Cup and Papa Johns Trophy.

“We’ve lost three games in 10 and one of those was against a full-strength Premier League team,” said the Wanderers’ boss, whose side tasted defeat in the league to current top-four sides Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth Argyle either side of their League Cup exit to Aston Villa.

“It’s been okay. I think performances have generally been very good.

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“We’ve just had moments and lost moments in games. The two we lost in the league the performances weren’t bad. It was more the moments in both boxes that caused us problems.

“We’re obviously working very hard on resolving that. I saw better signs against Crewe and against Charlton.

“If we can win these next two games, I think it will have been an excellent start to the season and we will probably be more or less bang on target.

“I know it sounds strange, but this week kind of defines whether it has been an average start or a good start and hopefully we can get the points required to have a very good start and we can kick on from there.”

It looks increasingly likely that Wanderers’ scheduled game at Portsmouth on 24 September will be called off, with Amadou Bakayoko’s call-up for two friendlies with Sierra Leone adding to the Whites’ international roll call.

That will leave Wanderers with two games to re-arrange following the postponement of last Saturday’s trip to Cheltenham.

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But Evatt is not concerned about any fixture backlog at this stage with the current squad strength at his disposal.

“The games are sporadic enough with the international break and the postponement on Saturday for us to really target games with what we think is the best 11 to win that game and that’s how it will be,” added Evatt, whose side go to Stadium MK on the back of successive wins.

“The team I would have picked on Saturday is completely different to the one I pick tonight.

“That’s just football. Obviously, the circumstances we find ourselves in are unprecedented.

“Unfortunately, for some of the lads who would have played on Saturday it’s a missed opportunity. But there will be others coming along pretty quickly.”

Although the Whites’ trip to Pompey is expected to be called off, Wanderers are scheduled to play at Tranmere Rovers in their second Papa Johns Trophy tie on Tuesday, 20 September when Josh Sheehan, Eoin Toal and Owen Beck are expected to play to get themselves fully up to speed for League One duty.

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