Ian Evatt will lead from the front again on Tuesday night as he takes his place in the Wanderers’ dugout, writes Pete Oliver.
Evatt was sent off at half-time of the Whites’ 1-1 draw at Northampton Town on Saturday as he queried the red card shown to George Thomason by referee Jeremy Simpson.
Wanderers have lodged an appeal against Thomason’s dismissal and will know before tomorrow night’s visit of Wycombe Wanderers whether the midfielder will serve a three-match ban.
The Whites will also contest Evatt’s dismissal – his second of the season after he was shown a red card, but not banned, for ‘mis-use of technology’ when referring to a replay of an incident during Wanderers’ win over Fleetwood Town in August.
“We will appeal George’s card and I'm waiting to find out what's going to happen with me,” confirmed Evatt, who was barred from the touchline and stands and unable to perform media duties after the fightback at the Sixfields Stadium.
“It doesn't really sit right with me that I've been sent off twice this season, one for mentioning technology and the other time for articulating what I believe was a fair argument.
“It's one of those things I probably need to learn from but, being honest, I've tried and I've done that. I've looked at myself over the past few seasons and how I can evolve and develop, personally, and that was one.
“This season I have made a conscious effort to try and be better, with no swearing and just a clear way of articulating our argument. I'm allowed to fight for our team and what I believe is right and wrong and I'm never going to stop doing that.”
Evatt was forced to watch Wanderers’ Bristol Street Motors Trophy win over Stockport from the directors’ box earlier this season under the yellow-card totting up procedure.
But the Whites’ manager will be in place in the technical area against Wycombe as his side aims to build on their fightback at Northampton and potentially regain second place in League One.
“It's disappointing it ended up how it did,” added Evatt. “But thankfully the players managed to get a result which is really important for us at this stage, especially with results elsewhere, and now we must focus on the big game on Tuesday night.
“I will be in the dugout tomorrow night and in the dugout until further notice. We still don't know what's going to happen. I will put up another fair argument and see how that develops but the most important thing now as we park that, we stop the sideshows and we focus on a really big game tomorrow night.
“It was another point in difficult circumstances away from home (on Saturday). We managed to find a way back, which was great. The players have a real never-say-die attitude. They know how to fight and have developed that instinct which is going to be all important for the rest of this season.
“We want to play better than we did in the first half and we know we are capable of better, but to get something out of that game in those circumstances was impressive. Now we have to get back to winning ways and we'll do our best to do that tomorrow night.”