Home
Wanderers might well have left Hillsborough on Friday night cursing a penalty decision and the chance to end one of European football’s longest unbeaten runs – but answering their doubters could be worth much more in the long run.
Very few expected Ian Evatt’s side to rediscover their mojo at Hillsborough, where Sheffield Wednesday’s streetwise march towards promotion has been virtually unchecked since October.
Only French side Le Harve can match the Owls’ unbeaten run in Europe’s top five professional leagues over the last 23 games, yet had justice been done and referee Sam Purkiss pointed to spot when Aiden Flint shoved Dion Charles with 10 minutes to go, the record could have come to an unexpected halt.
Putting aside that frustration, the timing of such a performance – described by Evatt as Wanderers’ best away from home all season – will have done wonders for a group of players preparing for Wembley and the Papa Johns Trophy final.
Bolton remain four games without a win in League One, their longest barren spell since last January, but cannot fail to take heart from their second half display in South Yorkshire, which was everything their previous defeat at home to Ipswich was not.
A ruthless February schedule had seemingly eroded confidence across the squad, with some players choosing a bad time to experience their first real crisis of form of the campaign.
Evatt had banked on the energy of youth to keep the team firing before their pre-final break, and that inexperience did show through at times against Port Vale, Portsmouth, Morecambe and Ipswich. At Wednesday the Bolton boss favoured some of his more experienced heads – reinstating Declan John, Kieran Lee and Josh Sheehan – and will now have some food for thought as he decides who starts next month’s showpiece against Plymouth.
Sheehan will feel his midfield performance on Friday night will have given his manager a big call in the middle of the park, where Aaron Morley had previously looked a shoo-in.
The wide open Wembley pitch looks tailor-made for Morley’s passing range, and his propensity to turn it on for the TV cameras could also come in useful.
The former Rochdale man had started the last 13 games before Sheffield Wednesday and looked in need of a rest. Sheehan, meanwhile, has been dipping in and out of the team for most of the season, never quite able to amass enough starts to say he was 100 per cent back in the fold after his serious knee injury. Hillsborough, in that sense, could be a turning point.
Evatt may well choose to play both Sheehan and Morley, a pairing that has been used seven times in all competitions and yet to finish on the losing side.
Elsewhere, Bolton have Shola Shoretire, Victor Adeboyejo and Dan Nlundulu cup tied, so will have to juggle some of their resources.
Evatt is giving MJ Williams and George Johnston every chance to prove their fitness, playing them in the B Team last Friday against Burnley and then pencilling in a behind-closed-doors friendly at the end of this week.
But the Bolton boss does have a choice to make up front without Adeboyejo or Shoretire to partner Dion Charles, he may look to either of his experienced front men, Elias Kachunga or Cameron Jerome.
Kachunga’s redemption arc was completed with the winning goal at Accrington in the semi-final and he has featured in every game in the competition so far – but Wanderers fans will need little reminder that his scoring record for the club is sparse. Jerome is a Wembley specialist, unbeaten in the stadium, and having overcome a back injury he has shown up well as a substitute in the last couple of weeks. Yet to start a game for Bolton, it would be a big statement if his full debut were to come against Plymouth but stranger things have happened, and fans with long memories might remember Gudni Bergsson being thrown in at the deep end against Liverpool in the League Cup final back in 1995.
Had Bolton left Sheffield Wednesday with nothing, a different light would have been cast on discussions about team selection.
While it is true Evatt and his side must regain some consistency in the final eight games if they are to stand any chance of returning to Wembley for a second time this season, they go into the final against Plymouth with a well-timed boost of confidence and some peace restored after the post-Ipswich grumbling.
‘If we can do that here, we can do it anywhere,’ Josh Sheehan observed after the final whistle on Friday. And he is right, a performance of similar standard at Wembley would be just the job.
Source
