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Ian Evatt believes his side can take heart from their performance at Burton Albion – even if they missed out on three points.
The Wanderers boss was pleased with the way his patched-up side played at the Pirelli Stadium, where Vic Adeboyejo’s early goal was eventually cancelled out by Josh Walker’s strike on the hour.
Bolton reacted well to the Burton goal and should have grabbed a second before the end, but their resolve left Evatt optimistic about the final four games as they seek to clinch a play off spot in League One.
“I just said to the players that they might feel like one has got away because it was a really good performance, an excellent performance, in fact, because we limited them to very little,” he said after the final whistle.
“James (Trafford) made an excellent save just before the goal and then another one which fell to them for the goal – but we had enough chances to have won three games.
“Football has a funny way of evening itself out and as much as the Exeter victory and the Oxford victory were backs to the wall at times, this was much more like us tonight. We dominated the ball and it says a lot when home side are running it into the corners with two or three minutes to go, the weight of pressure they were under. For whatever reason we just didn’t have that final little bit tonight.
“If they play like that for the last four games they will have no problems.”
Derby and Peterborough won away from home to close up the gap once again, yet Evatt feels confident that with a hat-trick of home games to come against Shrewsbury, Accrington and Fleetwood, the Whites are in a good position.
“That’s just football isn’t it? Results have gone against us but it didn’t happen on Saturday, did it? As far as I understand we are still in the top six and we have that extra game, like we have always wanted it, it is in our hands. We have to do the business but there was a lot to like about that performance tonight.
“We have had to do the hard yards since Wembley and had three away games, stayed undefeated in all of them, and won two. Now we’re back at our place, so we need to pack it out Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday and get the results we need.
“There are three teams fighting for two positions and it is in our hands. All we need to do is take care of business and if we play like we did tonight then I don’t envisage us having any problems.”
Wanderers have never won a game at Burton and surely would have done if they had converted one of several presentable chances in the second half.
“It just wouldn’t go in for us tonight – George Thomason and Cam Jerome have missed two really good opportunities and we’ve had shots flashing across the goal, shots being blocked when they are going in, and sometimes it just happens like that,” Evatt said.
“It is football and credit to the way they defended. This has been our kryptonite for the last few years but I think people should take great pride in the way we played.”
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