Ian Evatt explained there was no injury which kept Declan John out of the Bolton Wanderers squad in the draw against Barnsley but rather the limited scenarios he felt the defender could feature in the clash was behind the decision.
The Whites were back at home yesterday and seeking to return to winning ways against the Tykes, following back to back losses against Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers. He made three changes to his team, including restoring Dapo Afolayan to the starting XI.
But despite opportunities for the likes of Afolayan, Dion Charles and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Wanderers were unable to break the deadlock against a Barnsley side which rarely threatened. The Whites remain just outside the play-offs and level on points with the Tykes after the spoils were shared.
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John was absent from the team sheet and the 18 Bolton players selected for the encounter, as Evatt chose to name a matchday squad without any defenders or goalkeepers in it. Evatt explained the reasoning for this afterwards and believes a limited impact he foresaw John having, allied to the current lack of goals at the top end of the pitch, contributed to the decision.
He said: “Just the amount of options that I’ve got at the moment and the ways things have been going at the top end of the pitch, there was only really a scenario really that Declan would come off the bench if we had a real early injury in the game.
“We were kind of gambling against that and the later the game went on, I’m more likely to put Kieran Sadlier out there or Dapo out there and especially when we’re dictating and dominating the game so much because there was literally no attacking threat, especially down that side of the pitch, so we could then afford to take Jack off and put an attacker there.
“Unfortunately for Declan, he’s the one who has had to miss out today but I don’t think we had a goalkeeper or defender on the bench today so it shows you the strength in depth of what we’ve got in the midfield and forward options.”
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