Kieran Lee's absence against Cambridge United for Bolton Wanderers was always planned to help keep the midfielder fresh for the busy month of February.
Wanderers have eight games over the course of the next month and got it off to a flying start with a 2-0 win over Cambridge United last night.
After a host of chances where Wanderers should have taken the lead in the first half, they did just that when Amadou Bakayoko slotted home before half-time.
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Bolton weathered pressure from the U's in the first 15 minutes after the break as Mark Bonner's side sought a route back into the encounter.
But Dapo Afolayan made the points secure with a great solo effort to ensure Wanderers went four wins on the bounce and indeed with four clean sheets in a row which has lifted them back into the top half of the League One table.
Lee was not named in the Wanderers squad due to a slight knock, but speaking after the win, Evatt revealed it was purely down to taking care of the influential midfielder in the busy schedule and that he should be back available for this Saturday's trip to Morecambe.
Bakayoko replaced Lee and Evatt was pleased for the forward after getting on the scoresheet and believes the competition in the final third is intense.
He said: “I think we’d have found it hard to drag him out of the jacuzzi and massage bed today! But we’re just taking care of him. He’s a really important player for us.
"He’s been in great form, he was excellent on Saturday and it’s a big ask for him to play Saturday-Tuesday for a while month so we highlighted this game that we thought we could give him a rest and with the options we’ve got, you’ve seen with Kieran (Sadlier) what he can bring us with some real quality and big Jon (Dadi Bodvarsson) coming on as well and Kyle (Dempsey) to come into this, it’s real good.
“I’m really pleased for him (Bakayoko). He probably felt a bit hard done to coming out of the team after two wins, but I’ve got some serious options now and we reverted Dapo back to the 10 role while Kieran was having a bit of a rest and a spa day!
"We’ve got some serious competition for places and options now and the lads have to understand and respect that when we’re changing things around, the lads coming in are really good players.”
As mentioned, Wanderers have Dempsey to come into this attacking group after his deadline day move from Gillingham.
Dempsey could make his debut against Morecambe this weekend and Evatt believes Wanderers have exited the January transfer window in a much better place than when they entered it.
Evatt added: “We’ve chased him for a long time and we’ve worked really hard to get that deal done and massive thanks to Matt Barrass, Chris Markham, Simon Marland and all the hard work they’ve done over this month and obviously to Sharon (Brittan) and the board who have supported me as best they can.
“We’ve highlighted some good talent that we think we can improve and progress with and I think we’re starting to see that already. It looks a completely different squad to what it did a month ago.
"Every time you want to leave transfer windows stronger than what you entered them and I think we’ve certainly done that.”
