Ian Evatt insists his players are eager to get going again as they look to regain the winning thread and build on their productive start to the season.
Wanderers have had to work their way through their first blank mid-week of the campaign on the back of their first defeat of the season.
The 4-0 home loss to Wigan Athletic ended a four-game winning streak and the Whites will be out to make amends when they resume action at Burton Albion on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s been a long week,” admitted Evatt. “Post-Saturday, you want that Tuesday game to get back in the swing of things again. We haven’t had that, so we’ve had to work very hard on the training pitch.
“We’ve been smarting but we’re certainly ready to get back on the grass again and show everyone what we can do.
“It’s a long football season and we know our aims and ambitions. It is only three points, even if it doesn’t feel like that against your local rivals. We’ve still won four out of five games and we have to remind the players of that.
“We’ve done a lot right so far and hopefully we can get back to those levels again on Saturday and get three important points.”
Wanderers won their only away game to date as they eased to a 3-0 win at Cheltenham Town to erase the memory of last season’s loss at Whaddon Road.
Burton have also proved tricky opponents in the past on their own ground and Evatt knows his men must be up for the fight at the Pirelli Stadium to deny the Brewers their first win of the season.
“We know what’s coming,” added Evatt, who is aiming to the become the first Bolton manager to win at Burton after picking up a point there last term.
“There are no surprises there and we have to do a lot of the things well that we didn’t do last Saturday, which is compete, win duels, win tackles and second balls.
“We’ve been reminded of that. We learned a very harsh lesson on Saturday. It’s not just all about our football and us implementing and executing our plan on them.
“We have to, number one, battle, fight and compete. Hopefully we’ll do that on Saturday and then add to the quality we know we’ve got onto that platform and if we do that we’ve got a very good chance of winning the game.”
The game at Burton will be streamed LIVE on Wanderers TV for international subscribers.
UK supporters can listen to live commentary of the match with an Audio Pass. Passes are available to purchase by clicking HERE