Ian Evatt wants Bolton Wanderers to embrace the challenge of facing the likes of Blackburn Rovers and the returning Adam Armstrong when the Championship side come to town tomorrow.
Tony Mowbray's outfit visit the University of Bolton Stadium for a 3pm kick-off in a pre-season friendly.
It will be the final game of Bolton's pre-season schedule before the League One season gets under way next weekend against MK Dons.
One player who could feature for Rovers and will be familiar with the surroundings tomorrow is attacker Armstrong.
He spent the first half of the 2017/18 season on loan at Wanderers from Newcastle United, scoring three goals in 23 appearances, before being recalled by the Magpies in January and being sent out to Ewood Park.
Armstrong has since moved permanently to Rovers and has been a revelation, with 29 goals last season putting him in the eye of Premier League club's for a potential move this summer.
Evatt does not want Wanderers to be fearful against the likes of Armstrong and his Rovers team-mates tomorrow, and to embrace the game and do their jobs rather than concentrating too much on the calibre of opposition they will face.
He said: “You will always come up against highly regarded players when you play Premier League or Championship opposition, people with reputations. But they count for nothing when you run out there.
“We don’t want our players to be fearful.
"I want them to embrace the game and do their jobs, worrying about what they are doing rather than the opposition.
“A victory, a good performance and performances will judge how we implement our game plan against opposition teams and that’s no different for Saturday.
"It’s our last pre-season game. We’re fortunate that, barring the FC United game, which we managed not to lose, we’ve done okay and we’re unbeaten and we want to keep that going and take momentum into MK Dons.”
