Ian Evatt says some of the Bolton Wanderers players have expressed confusion over an element of negativity surrounding the club from some supporters despite the progression made this season but has vowed they must not be sensitive as they maintain their vision of being in the top six by the campaign's conclusion.
Wanderers head to Cambridge United tomorrow aiming to return to winning ways in League One. The Whites have lost their last two games in all competitions, to Oxford United in League One and Barnsley in the first round of the FA Cup.
The Whites are sitting in the play-off positions as things stand, their aim prior to a ball being kicked this campaign. It is evidence of progression form the previous campaign, where Bolton ended last season in ninth place.
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Wanderers have come off the back of a mixed bag of results in October. Across the course of the busy month, Evatt's side won four games, drew once and lost three in all competitions.
The recent up and down form and, at times, performance levels, has drawn a degree of criticism from an element of the Wanderers fanbase. Evatt says this has confused some of the players, but has told them they cannot be sensitive to that and must stick to their beliefs as they vow to give it the best shot they can to achieve promotion.
And the squad knows it has the ability to perform well as the victories over the likes of Wycombe Wanderers and Peterborough United showed, as well as the other side of their game which they displayed in the comeback win on the road to Accrington Stanley. Evatt believes his side are going with full belief they can get the right result at the Abbey Stadium tomorrow afternoon.
Evatt told the Manchester Evening News : “Some of the players have been confused to why there seems to be an element of negativity surrounding the club at the moment. From their perspective, there’s progression - we’re in the top six and that was our aim and ambition.
“We understand that we haven’t played great but you’re going to have spells like that in a football season and you have to manage those spells. But I’ve told them we can’t be sensitive, we just need to maintain our focus, stick to what we believe in, work extremely hard and then make sure we give it our best possible shot and that’s what I believe we’ll do.
“Now that may or may not be good enough come the end of the season, but we’re going to give it everything, we can guarantee that and there isn’t any stone being left unturned at all by anybody. We’re working extremely hard and they’ve done so this week, and we’re going to Cambridge with full belief we can get the right result.
“The players know that when they perform well, they’re an extremely difficult team to beat, there’s no denying that. You look at the results we’ve had against some of the top sides like Peterborough and those types of performances like against Wycombe, they’ve been exceptional.
“They’re capable, we know we’re capable and when we dip under that performance level it’s disappointing and we’ve all been disappointed this past month. Football seasons are a long time and we’ve got two away games now to show what we can do and show that other side of our game - the grit and determination what we showed at Accrington, though it would be nice to not have to come from two behind!
“We love being and working here and we want to do the very best we can for Bolton Wanderers and that starts on Saturday again.”
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