Ian Evatt welcomed the chance to get some more of his players up to speed as Wanderers moved closer to the start of the season, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites lost 1-0 to Stoke City in their penultimate warm-up game with a first-half goal from Dutch U21 international Million Manhoef enough to give the Championship side victory.
Wanderers were still missing more than half-a-dozen senior players, with Aaron Collins and Will Forrester the latest to miss out through injury.
Number-one Nathan Baxter was also given the evening off but that allowed summer recruit Luke Southwood to give an impressive first performance in a Wanderers’ shirt and several others to increase their game-time and match fitness after spells out.
“The key thing tonight was, number one, we didn't pick up any more injuries, and it looks like we've managed that and, two, we were able to change the team and give some players some minutes which were much needed,” Evatt told Wanderers TV.
“George Johnston will be much better for that experience. He's not played for a long, long time and is still building up his sharpness and fitness.
“Jack (Iredale) hasn't started and played long minutes so far this pre-season because of injury and Dion (Charles) has just returned.
“We will get there but, at the moment, we're having to manage the group as best we can.
“The injuries are coming back and hopefully we'll have some new recruits come the start of this season, so it's another step forward with more learnings and we'll be ready for Port Vale on Saturday.”
Wanderers play the final game of their pre-season schedule at Vale before starting their League One campaign at Leyton Orient a week later.
The fixture against the League Two Valiants follows three matches against Championship sides and one against Italian top-flight opposition in Fiorentina.
Evatt admitted his re-shuffled side, which also saw summer signing Scott Arfield complete his first 90 minutes and Aaron Morley and Dan Nlundulu get a start, hadn’t competed well enough against Stoke before the break.
But he was more pleased with the Whites’ second-half performance in which the fit-again Charles had the best chance to equalise after coming off the bench.
And the Bolton boss expects the squad to continue to improve from here on in.
“We've really tested ourselves in pre-season and played some high-calibre opponents, so we've not taken it easy and that was a tough game to go into cold,” added Evatt, who confirmed that defender Gethin Jones is expected to be out for four weeks after undergoing keyhole surgery to clear up a knee problem.
“Some lack sharpness and they're not all back to where we'd like them right now but that's a step forward and they'll improve from that.
“They'll have another opportunity on Saturday and we’ll probably play some in the B Team early next week as well, so we’ve still got time to get them more minutes before the season starts.
“Aaron is getting better every day and should be okay for the weekend, fingers crossed. Will innocuously rolled his ankle in training. It doesn’t look too serious at the moment.
“Kyle (Dempsey) should return next week, Chris Forino returns on Thursday and Randell (Williams) should be next week as well, so all of a sudden the squad is looking stronger even though we're short on numbers.”
Watch the manager’s full post-match interview and a chat with goalkeeper Luke Southwood following his first start for the Whites on Wanderers TV HERE