Ian Evatt insists Wanderers are hungry for more as they look to extend their winning run against his former club on Saturday, writes Pete Oliver.
Evatt will send his Whites’ side out in search of a fifth successive League One win and seventh in eight league matches when they face Blackpool at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
The Wanderers’ boss played over 250 games for Blackpool in a seven-year stay at Bloomfield Road which peaked with promotion to the Premier League under Ian Holloway in 2010.
His first meeting with the Seasiders as a manager will therefore be a poignant one, but one which Evatt is determined to win to keep Wanderers climbing.
“Obviously I have a huge affiliation with that football club and I massive amount of respect for it and the things that we did together,” said Evatt, who was named League One’s Manager of the Month for October.
“The fans were incredible with me and I will have fond memories forever about the times we had there. But that's gone now that was almost another lifetime.
“I'm now the manager of Bolton Wanderers. We are competing for the same thing and I want us to do extremely well. I love this job, I love this club and the people I'm working with and for and it means an awful lot to us to try and achieve our ambitions this season.
“Blackpool are our next challenge next opportunity to try and win three points and we're going to give it all we can to try and make that happen. I wish Blackpool all the best in the future but for me now it's about winning that game on Saturday and moving onto our next target.”
Wanderers could move into the automatic promotion places with a positive result against a Blackpool side which has lost just one of its last six league games in a bid to climb into the top six and mount a challenge for an instant return to the Championship.
And despite Wanderers’ superb recent run – which includes just one loss in 10 games in all competitions – Evatt knows there can be no letting up ahead of the up-coming international break.
“We know football changes over night, so we're certainly not going to rest on our laurels and pat each other on the back,” he added.
“We want more, we want to strive to do more, we want to work harder to improve and if we can improve it gives us a great chance of achieving our ambitions.
“But that’s a long way off. There are no prizes given out in October, November. The prizes are given out in May and that’s where we want to become the end of the season.
“We’re not there yet. We’re still third, we’re not where we want to be, so it’s important we keep working hard to get where we want to be and, hopefully, we’re there come the end of the season.”
Watch the manager's full pre-match interview on Wanderers TV HERE