Ian Evatt welcomed a step forward in Wanderers’ pre-season planning with another positive test against Championship opposition, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites ended up with a 3-0 loss to Middlesbrough at Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park in their first public work-out of the summer.
But after beating West Bromwich Albion a week earlier behind closed doors, Evatt felt his men went up a level in being the better side for the opening hour against Boro.
With a full compliment of senior players, Wanderers put in an impressive shift before multiple changes and the Whites’ injury list took their toll as Michael Carrick’s Teessiders followed up their Carabao Cup success over the Whites last season with three goals inside the final half-hour.
“I thought in the first 60 minutes there was a huge step forward and lots of positives to take,” said Evatt, who confirmed that Kyle Dempsey will have a scan to assess a knee issue after the midfielder was added to the list of absentees for the trip to the North-East.
“I thought we had control of the game really for large spells, so it's a big step forward from what we've done so far in pre-season and big step forward from last season.
“We played Middlesbrough last season and even though the game was competitive at times we had large spells without the ball and suffered a little bit. I didn't think there was any of that today.
“Then, because we've got eight injured and at the moment and we're waiting for the dominoes to fall in terms of recruitment, we are very, very light and you have to field a team of kids for the last half an hour, plus three or four of the senior ones.
“It's not a fair reflection on the kids because they're not ready for it yet and it's part of their learning and development against a really good team.
“But if we had the recruits in or all the injured players available we would have been able to field two strong XIs and I think the game would have finished a lot more competitive then how it ended. But we mustn't lose sight of the 1st 60 minutes and I was really pleased with what I saw.”
Boro brought on last season’s leading scorer Emmanuel Latte Lath after an hour as both sides made multiple changers and the Ivory Coast international broke the deadlock within six minutes.
Sonny Finch added a second from a corner and summer signing Delano Burgzorg completed the scoring with a late spot-kick.
But Wanderers had chances themselves earlier on when they caused the Championship side real problems with a slightly new-look formation of two central midfield players and a front three in which Klaidi Lolos enjoyed an eye-catching afternoon.
“When we've got a squad of players that are used to playing the way we want to play, and have been recruited for that purpose, it's impossible to just rip up what you’ve already built and start to go more direct,” added Evatt of his revised line-up.
“We just have to tweak what we are and we have done that and you could see that today. It’s just a slightly different shape and system and a different way of pressing and it was really successful against a good team. And that's the next phase of our development and how we're going to evolve.
“We've worked very hard and we've taken our medicine over the summer. We know we need to be better this season and we will be. I have full belief in that. So now is the time to keep our heads down, keep working hard, keep progressing week-on-week and come the first game of this season make sure we're ready.”
Watch the manager's full post-match interview on Wanderers TV HERE