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Wanderers must keep faith with their squad rotation policy – if the heavy Christmas schedule is going to work, insists Ian Evatt.
The Bolton boss made five changes to his side for the 1-0 win against Lincoln City last night and is expected to switch his team again for the trip to Fleetwood Town on Friday.
Though Carlos Mendes Gomes is now unavailable after linking up with the Guinea Bissau squad for the African Cup of Nations and Gethin Jones will be playing his final game before joining the Australia squad for the Asian Cup next month, Evatt is confident his whole squad can chip in to keep the Whites in promotion contention – whether they start the game, or not.
He said: “Before we started the Christmas period, which I think starts on the 23rd we had four games in nine days – and I think it is impossible to play at the intensity I want, and to be a team at our best, to keep going with the same 11. I trust our squad, we have good players, and there is going to be rotation.
“It showed today that when different players come in, they can do well, and it will continue to be that way.
“We can rotate before the game but also in-game we can change things as well. It was great for Josh (Sheehan) to come on as a substitute and deliver a pin-point cross for a great header from Eoin.”
Toal scored the winner on the same ground he netted his first goal in English football nearly 12 months earlier.
Evatt revealed that the Northern Irishman nearly didn’t start the game at Lincoln, having picked up an injury earlier in the week.
He explained: “He was the one doubt, suffering from a bit of a knock to his ankle, but Eoin being Eoin he just wanted to get on with it and play. I am delighted for him to get the goal.
“He likes playing here, we like playing here. We have a good record here and scoring in front of those away fans is a brilliant feeling.
“I just wish we could bottle it. Seeing all the team celebrate in front of them is incredible. We love making them happy and they were amazing for us today.”
Wanderers had 71 per cent possession at the LNER Stadium and Evatt felt his side’s reliability in possession was a key factor in them bringing home three points.
He said: “You are not defending when you have the ball – but if your opponent doesn’t have the ball then they can’t score. We had so much of the ball that we restricted them to very little.
“At times we broke their spirit and our counter press was excellent. That is the way we want to play the game and today we executed it really well.”
Friday sees Wanderers travel to face struggling Fleetwood, who have not won in their last eight games in all competitions.
“Fleetwood is always a difficult place to go,” Evatt said. “And for us it is just about recognising what that good performance looks like and trying to execute it. If we keep playing well we believe we will achieve our ambitions but that is a long way off yet.”
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