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Wanderers will call for the kids at Shrewsbury Town – but Ian Evatt disputes suggestion that he is sacrificing progress from the group stages for freshness in League Two.
While some managers will openly flout the EFL’s complex rules on team selection tonight, running the risk of an arbitrary fine, Bolton will simply make as many changes as their squad will allow.
That means a call-up for Ronan Darcy, the breakthrough midfield star of last season’s League One campaign, and Boltonian defender Adam Senior, who travelled with the team in victory at Harrogate on Saturday.
Others bright young things, such as Finlay Lockett, Sonny Graham, Bright Amoateng and Matt Alexander, may also get their shot against Sam Ricketts’ League One side.
The very fact the EFL Trophy was retained this season is a bone of contention among lower league managers, who are already feeling the injury pinch after a year of abnormal training schedules and stop-start football.
“I want to win every game we play, I can’t deny that,” Evatt told us, “but when there are six more league games this month it is clearly a fixture that any club could do without, especially with the number of injuries we’re getting at the moment.
“Some of them are related to lockdown, the lack of football, some of them freak ones like Gethin’s on Saturday. But football will always give opportunities and it’s giving one to young players, homegrown ones, to come in and stake a claim to show they should be in the first team on Saturdays.”
Evatt refuses to go the whole hog and name a full side of young players, an approach Ipswich Town boss Paul Lambert has openly admitted in a competition he has branded “ludicrous”.
Rather the likes of Tom White, George Taft, Arthur Gnahoua, Liam Gordon and Brandon Comley could be drafted in to tick the various EFL stipulations on who must feature.
“We certainly won’t be getting fined, and we’ll abide by the rules,” Evatt said. “I will play a team I think is strong enough to win the game. I’m not sacrificing it. This won’t be lambs to the slaughter, I have firm belief in our younger players.
“Ronan will have a chance, for definite, Adam Senior, people who deserve a chance and have trained really well.
“They have experience of first team football last season and probably got thrust into the limelight a bit sooner than they should have been. But it will stand them in good stead for nights like this.
“They have been banging on the door for an opportunity and now they will get one.
“I hope they do well, I really do, because they are good lads, great talents, and they will be big players for this club in the years to come.
“First and foremost, they have to go out there at Shrewsbury and show we and the rest of the footballing world what they are about.”
Darcy’s exclusion has come as a surprise to some Wanderers fans, who had watched him grow up quickly in pressurised circumstances during last season’s relegation.
The handful of ‘Junior Whites’ who represented the club with such pride during administration and were retained in League Two have been marginalised by the flood of new signings.
But Evatt has been pleased with their reaction during the first few weeks of the season and insists the door will be open for them should they take an opportunity at Shrewsbury.
“They deserve a chance in the team,” he said. “We recruited a lot of players in the summer, which we needed to do, and they have been pushed down the pecking order a little bit.
“But the reaction I have seen in training, especially from Ronan, in the last two or three weeks has been excellent. He has been pushing and pushing for a start.
“The way he has trained has been fantastic and I hope he takes that into the game and shows me what he is all about.”
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While some managers will openly flout the EFL’s complex rules on team selection tonight, running the risk of an arbitrary fine, Bolton will simply make as many changes as their squad will allow.
That means a call-up for Ronan Darcy, the breakthrough midfield star of last season’s League One campaign, and Boltonian defender Adam Senior, who travelled with the team in victory at Harrogate on Saturday.
Others bright young things, such as Finlay Lockett, Sonny Graham, Bright Amoateng and Matt Alexander, may also get their shot against Sam Ricketts’ League One side.
The very fact the EFL Trophy was retained this season is a bone of contention among lower league managers, who are already feeling the injury pinch after a year of abnormal training schedules and stop-start football.
“I want to win every game we play, I can’t deny that,” Evatt told us, “but when there are six more league games this month it is clearly a fixture that any club could do without, especially with the number of injuries we’re getting at the moment.
“Some of them are related to lockdown, the lack of football, some of them freak ones like Gethin’s on Saturday. But football will always give opportunities and it’s giving one to young players, homegrown ones, to come in and stake a claim to show they should be in the first team on Saturdays.”
Evatt refuses to go the whole hog and name a full side of young players, an approach Ipswich Town boss Paul Lambert has openly admitted in a competition he has branded “ludicrous”.
Rather the likes of Tom White, George Taft, Arthur Gnahoua, Liam Gordon and Brandon Comley could be drafted in to tick the various EFL stipulations on who must feature.
“We certainly won’t be getting fined, and we’ll abide by the rules,” Evatt said. “I will play a team I think is strong enough to win the game. I’m not sacrificing it. This won’t be lambs to the slaughter, I have firm belief in our younger players.
“Ronan will have a chance, for definite, Adam Senior, people who deserve a chance and have trained really well.
“They have experience of first team football last season and probably got thrust into the limelight a bit sooner than they should have been. But it will stand them in good stead for nights like this.
“They have been banging on the door for an opportunity and now they will get one.
“I hope they do well, I really do, because they are good lads, great talents, and they will be big players for this club in the years to come.
“First and foremost, they have to go out there at Shrewsbury and show we and the rest of the footballing world what they are about.”
Darcy’s exclusion has come as a surprise to some Wanderers fans, who had watched him grow up quickly in pressurised circumstances during last season’s relegation.
The handful of ‘Junior Whites’ who represented the club with such pride during administration and were retained in League Two have been marginalised by the flood of new signings.
But Evatt has been pleased with their reaction during the first few weeks of the season and insists the door will be open for them should they take an opportunity at Shrewsbury.
“They deserve a chance in the team,” he said. “We recruited a lot of players in the summer, which we needed to do, and they have been pushed down the pecking order a little bit.
“But the reaction I have seen in training, especially from Ronan, in the last two or three weeks has been excellent. He has been pushing and pushing for a start.
“The way he has trained has been fantastic and I hope he takes that into the game and shows me what he is all about.”
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