Bolton Wanderers are back in League Two action tomorrow evening when they make the short journey to take on Salford City.
The Whites make the trip to the Peninsula Stadium to take on Ammies tomorrow evening.
The clash had originally been due to take place in early February, but was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch on that occasion and rearranged.
Wanderers take on a Salford side now on their third manager of the season in the form of Gary Bowyer, who has taken over from Richie Wellens, who in turn replaced Graham Alexander earlier in the campaign.
The Ammies are ninth in the table heading into the encounter, three points from the play-offs and have won their last two games in succession.
And the Whites are third in League Two at present and will be aiming to consolidate their position in the top three with a victory.
Before the game, Wanderers manager Ian Evatt spoke to the media at a pre-match press conference and here's what he had to say to broadcasters, starting with the decision today to end Marcus Maddison's loan spell with the club early.
Clearly from everybody’s perspective, it does not appe ar to have worked out for Marcus Maddison?
“No but I think we should respect Marcus’s privacy at this time and some things are more important than football.
"Mental health and mental wellbeing is vital to us and Marcus deserves all the support he needs to get himself happy and in a better place.”
I’m sure you’d like to wish him all the best for the future?
“Absolutely and he has all along had my full support and he’ll go on even when I’m not his manager to have my full support and whatever help I can give him moving forwards, I’m always on the end of a phone.”
It’s another very important few days coming up, starting with the trip to Salford?
“It’s an important four weeks. It’s a difficult game but one we’re looking forward to though.”
How do you reflect on the Easter period and the win at the weekend?
“We know what we’ve got to do and fortunately for us, it is now firmly in our own hands. We’re the makers of our own destiny, so we have to go there and play as well as we can.
"There was slight frustrations with the Easter weekend, on Friday even though we didn’t play well I thought we scored a legitimate goal and then Monday we did play really well and got nothing. Thankfully for us, an excellent second half on Saturday got us three points.”
Do you look at the squad strength over the final furlong of the season?
“Yes, and we have to take each game as it comes on merit and we’ll look at the opposition and analyse them and pick a team accordingly.
"A lot of the lads are in a good routine now and barring any mishaps injury wise, the team are in good form, they know their own jobs, they’re playing well and we’ve got good competition for places.
"The good news is Antoni Sarcevic has come through another good session with the rehab guys today and the physios so he’s progressing really well.”
There’s been a managerial change at Forest Green Rovers with Mark Cooper moving on?
“I don’t want to speak about other people’s clubs and I don’t know the ins and outs, but they’ve seen fit to change it and that’s their call and decision. Thankfully for me I’ve got a chairman and a board of directors that believed in me in the dark times and we stuck to our beliefs.
"Eventually, hopefully, it’s come good and we can get the job done. I never like to see anyone lose his job.”
It appeared George Thomason’s contribution in the second half was the turning point for how the victory came about?
“First and foremost it wasn’t just Marcus’s fault that it didn’t go right first half, there was many under par performances and we couldn’t deal with the nature of their intensity and the nature of the press and we didn’t figure it out and find solutions in the first quarter of the game. It was the first 20 to 25 minutes that we struggled with.
"After that, we became better, certainly in the second half, but towards the end of the first half, we started to gain some control, purely because when a team is going 4-4-2 and they’re putting on a high press, the third and spare midfield player becomes the get out and the way you can build attacks and we didn’t utilise that well enough first half and then second half George came on.
"He was an extra midfield player and someone that could receive the ball in tight areas, especially deep and play forwards. We managed then to find some control and gain momentum.”
The 4-4-2 and the press is a very effective way for teams to win matches and obtain honours. Does it start to get a bit exhausting for the players so how much are fitness levels going to be important in these final six games?
“There isn’t many top, top teams that sacrifice possession. They’re all front foot high pressing teams, whether it’s a full on high press or it’s a mid block press, there aren’t many times, probably other than Jose Mourinho’s teams that sacrifice possession and try and play on the counterattack.
"The law of averages state that the higher up the pitch you win the ball, the more chance you have of scoring and if you look at our two goals on Saturday for instance, the first goal was very good build-up play to get it to Lloyd Isgrove in the pockets of space we tried to work to.
"He actually gave the ball away but then counter pressed it straight away, won it back and went through and scored. The second one was a full high press which forced their defender into a mistake.
"That isn’t by chance and it’s by hard work, by understanding what we implement on the training ground, so that pleases me.
"Especially in this division, the more pressure you get high up the pitch, the harder it is for opposition to drop quality balls into big physical strong target men and the majority of teams in this league play for territory, play to hit their front men, and play for second balls. If we can limit that by our pressing high, we will do, and that’s why I like to change the front players late in games to keep up that energy and intensity and high press.”
The fitness side of the game is going to be crucial and you’ve got to find a way of getting around a very physical division? Bolton are where they are for a very good reason and the quality of football in the second half of the season has been an absolute joy to watch and a good number of teams don’t know how to handle it?
“The pleasing thing for me is we’re only going to improve and get better. We’re finding solutions and working on solutions to the different look that the opposition give you.
"For instance on Saturday, previous home games, teams have come in and camped in low blocks and for all the analysis work we do, we can say to the players this is what we think they’re going to do, but like Harrogate on Saturday, who credit to them came and really had a go at us.
"The players have to find the solutions themselves on the pitch and we can’t wait until half-time for me to make the changes and for me to show them where the space is – they have to figure that out for themselves.
"That just comes from practice, from analysts’ clips analysing games of what we can and can’t do better, if they do this, this is what we do, if they do that, this is what we do, and eventually we’ll pick it up and do it naturally.
"But at the moment we’re still very much part of the learning process but we’re doing very well.”
On the Salford game, they still harbour hopes of trying to get into the top seven so it feels like one of the toughest away trips out of the remaining ones left?
“Absolutely, they’re unbeaten at home all season, so it’s going to be a tough game, there’s no two ways about it and they are definitely trying to get into that top seven and rightly so with what they spend and the players they’ve got at the football club.
"But for us, it’s about what we do and we’ll go there and try and implement the game plan, try and take the game to them.
"The pleasing thing for me moving forwards really is every game we look at now from now until the end of the season, probably other than the last game, there’s going to be something at stake and teams are either trying to make the play-offs, trying to stave off relegation or get promoted themselves, so I think it’ll be a good game.”
