Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt has spoken of the importance of the club achieving promotion this season, in an article from The Bolton News.
Wanderers head into Saturday’s huge clash with Portsmouth with their fate in their hands. The equation is simple: win all four of the remaining games and Championship football is secured.
Top scorer Dion Charles is said to be available after injury, as are Josh Sheehan and Ricardo Santos. This positive injury news comes on the back of a challenging few months for The Trotters. However, Evatt is keen to focus on the here and now.
“I have been guilty of it as well, but I think the shoulda, woulda, coulda conversation, or ‘if we had X, Y and Z available, where would we be and what would it look like’, I think you can send yourself crazy, and at times I have done.”
The former Barrow boss is determined to achieve promotion this term, particularly with an eye on the potential makeup of League One next season.
The likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers are all in danger of dropping out of the Championship, while biennial League One promotion winners Rotherham United are already guaranteed to be back in the third tier.
Wrexham and Stockport County, two ambitious clubs with means, are set to earn promotion from League Two, adding to the competition.
“We have to get the job done, there is no other way to say it.”
“We have to get there no matter what. As I have said before, this league seems to go in waves and the next season’s division seems to have the capability of being stronger than it has been this season, I think we can all see that with the teams that are coming up and those coming down.”
“The time is now and we have to try and make it happen.”
Writer’s View
With the game in hand over second-place Derby County, promotion is in Bolton’s hands but that could all change after Saturday against a Portsmouth side chasing the title.
League One next season is looking likely to be very competitive, certainly between the eight to ten clubs vying for promotion. Evatt is right in his assessment that going up this season is likely easier than achieving it in the next campaign.
