Ian Evatt says Bolton Wanderers sent the club's strikers videos of them scoring in the past to help motivate them back to goal form.
The strikers at Wanderers had been on a mini goal drought since the start of October in League One. Dion Charles and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson scored in the 2-0 win over Lincoln City.
Since then, the club's forwards had been through a lean spell in front of goal. It prompted the Wanderers boss to tell the players in that department that more was needed from them.
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Bodvarsson and Amadou Bakayoko responded to that message with goals from the bench in last night's dramatic 2-1 victory over Burton Albion. Dapo Afolayan also scored the winner in the 3-2 comeback triumph over the weekend against Accrington Stanley.
Charles is still waiting for his next goal to come, but Evatt has revealed the club has sent the forward players videos of their previous accomplishments with music to act as motivation for them as the Bolton boss vowed to stick with the club's forwards. He paid tribute to his players for not giving up and the character they have shown in the last two games to come from behind to claim six points.
He told the Manchester Evening News: “I’ve been working really hard behind the scenes to try and keep them confident. This is such a big club, everyone has huge expectations and we do more than anybody, and I try and tell the players to stay off the socials as much as possible because football’s an emotional game.
“In one minute you can be a hero, the next time you can be a villain. But I’m just trying to keep them focused and confident. We’ve been sending them videos of them scoring goals, highlight videos with music in the background, motivational to keep them believing and they’ve all suffered with a bit of belief.
“Dion’s probably going through that spell at the moment, but we’ll stick with them and we believe in them. I keep saying that and tonight they’ve repaid the faith.
“They don’t give up and just stick with us. We’re doing the best we can, we’re going to win games, we’re going to lose them. It’s the nature of football seasons.
“We’re going to win games we shouldn’t, we’re going to lose games that we’re predicted to win. It’s just how football seasons evolve and change and you have to keep yourself pretty even stevens and level and not get too high with the high moments or low with the low ones.
“Sometimes it’s closing those four walls around us and keeping that belief and sometimes we can share magical moments like the comeback on Saturday and again tonight. But I believe in this group of players. I hope the fanbase does, everything that I see tonight is they very much do and hopefully we’ll give them a good season.
“There’s a long way to go. 15 games gone and loads more improvement to come but I’m really pleased with the way we’ve showed absolute huge amounts of character the last two games to win from where we were in those games.”
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