Bolton Wanderers will be aiming to make it three wins in a row when they take on Oxford United this weekend.
The Whites host the Us at the University of Bolton Stadium having cemented their place in the League One top six owing to recent wins. Bolton have come from behind to claim maximum rewards from clashes against Accrington Stanley and Burton Albion.
They sit fifth heading into the encounter. Karl Robinson's side meanwhile are 20th in the table at present and just above the relegation zone.
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Before the game, Wanderers boss Ian Evatt spoke to the media at a pre-match press conference. Here's a transcript of everything he had to say to broadcasters prior to the encounter.
Any unavailability?
“There are no issues. Will Aimson picked up a slight knock in the B Team but other than that everyone is fine."
Oxford are next up - what do you expect?
“It’ll be a real tough game. They are in a really false position, in my opinion, and having watched a lot of their games they have performed a lot better than the league table suggests.
“Their xG against is the best in the league, which means they are not really conceding a lot of chances but getting punished when they are.
“Karl’s teams are always a challenge to play against and we know how they will play. It will be a completely different game to Burton, that’s for sure, but we are looking forward to it."
The camp at the moment must be buoyant after those last two wins?
“There is no better way to win football matches than that – but the game was frustrating, no doubt about it. We looked at the data this morning and from nearly 100 minutes of football the ball was in play for 49 of them, which is crazy really.
“I don’t know if that is a record. I have seen a few things that Arsene Wenger wants to change in football, having the clock stopped when the ball is out of play and having a guaranteed 60 minutes. Last night is a case in point for that, really, it was frustrating.
“We are not going to be our fluid selves every week and sometimes you go through ruts of form. I don’t think we are playing badly, by the way, but good teams find ways to win. You can never please everyone."
Would you like to see some method to keep the ball in play introduced?
“I am not saying it has to be a stopped clock but it is something you have to look at.
“Strip everything back, football is an entertainment business and people pay loads of money to come to the football and be entertained, watch the ball actually be in play. Last night neither set of supporters saw that and it is something we have to look at.
“In the world we live in, the financial situation in the UK, it is difficult for people to find the money to come to football clubs. The least they deserve is to be entertained.
“If, for instance, you could guarantee 60 minutes of football then you are not going to get the issues of last night."
Something you'll be looking at closely is team selection with another scratch of the head?
“Again, we changed formation three or four times during the game and I am trying to get us to the stage where we can be flexible, switch from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2 to 4-3-3 constantly.
“Weirdly, after being 4-3-3 for most of the second half yesterday it was 3-5-2 that got us the goal. I don’t think there is a lot wrong, to be honest. Yes, it has been a topsy turvy month but we have another game Saturday to go into and if we win that we’re in a healthy position."
At times in the closing stages vs Burton, it looked like a 1-1-9 formation...
“I think theirs was 9-1-1. That was a good band, by the way.
“The most pleasing thing again was the attitude of the players because if you watch it back it’s pretty funny. He is celebrating on his own and the rest of the team is beckoning him back from the halfway line saying ‘get your a*** back here, we want to win the game’.
“We got it back, we hit the post with Kieran Lee, had a massive chance with Conor Bradley, and it would have been easy for the players to think it wasn’t their day. They kept pushing, showed great spirit and character and won the game.”
How are you feeling about back to back victories being achieved?
“It was important definitely and we found a way to win both games which good teams do. There isn’t many teams that play brilliantly well every game and go on and win every game they should.
“You have to find different ways to win. Last night we found a way to win from a long kick from Traff and a second phase corner. People get on at us about set plays, but we’ve got back in the game on Saturday with a set play, we’ve scored the winner from a set play last night so we’re working hard to try and fix this. Some of it has worked, some of it hasn’t, but it’s another string to our bow that we’re working very hard to be added to our game.”
Were those goals pragmatic?
“To be honest I’m a self-prescribed football snob and pragmatic, I don’t really like very much, but if pragmatic means we get results like we did last night then so be it. As much as I want to play through the thirds and the lines from back to front, we have to play what the game gives you and you have play where the space is.
“If they’re willing to go man for man at the back and we put Baka and Jon on who are physically dominant and they’re happy to leave two for two, then obviously we’ll kick to them. It’s just space recognition of what’s hurting the opposition the most and I think by changing it last night, we managed to figure out that was the route and it got us the winner, which was great.”
How quickly would you like to see a total football style game imposed on the players to bamboozle the opposition?
“I want us to be really tactically flexible and to keep changing and keep the opposition guessing but I said in the week it’s not about formations. People can really pay too much attention to formation, it’s about what our idea is, in and out of possession, so what are we doing against the ball, what are we doing with the ball.
“What are we trying to do, what’s our philosophy and identity. Within those systems we can evolve, even with the back three, sometimes we play out as a back four because we use Traff as a second centre back in the build phase and don’t get too focused and obsessed with what formation we’re playing because in game it can constantly change and evolve.
“That’s what we’re trying to get to and that keeps the opposition guessing and it’s really difficult to plan for. Saturday, a flip to 4-3-3 got us the result. Last night, we started 3-5-2, changed to 4-3-3, went back to 3-5-2 and we ended up getting the result. We’re not in a bad place, we’re doing a lot of things right. It’s still a work in progress and there’s still lots of things to work on, but I’m relatively happy with where we’re at.”
You are finding resourceful ways of combating the dark arts which were quite evident last night…
“I said last night the referee Sam is a really good fella. I’ve shared and mirrored his journey, he was in the National League when I was there and we’ve grown together, him in the refereeing ranks and me in the managerial ranks.
“But last night you need a really strong referee and the ball in play time was 49 minutes out of 100, it’s really low, and I don’t think that was our doing to be honest. You have to find different ways and we’re not going to be fluent when there’s so much disruption, so we have to find alternative ways and that’s what we tried to do and eventually we got there.
“Maybe the football gods smiled on us, maybe they didn’t, I don’t know, but I’m a firm believer that hard work puts you where good luck can find you, so I think we did that.”
You’ve mentioned you feel Oxford United are in a false position. How tough do you expect them to be?
“Really tough because Karl is a vastly experienced manager. I have a lot of respect for Karl and the way his teams play and the way they set up. They’re like a wounded animal at the moment and they’re only one result away from turning things around and you should never rest on your laurels because Karl’s teams normally predominantly in recent history have started slowly but then they’ve gathered some serious momentum.
“That’s only one game away from changing. In football confidence ebbs and flows from the back of one result and if they get a result here on Saturday, it probably sets them off on a good run of form, but we don’t want that to happen.
“We know that it’s going to be a really challenging game. It’ll be completely different to the last two games we’ve faced but we’ll be ready for it.”
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