Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

Predicted Bolton Wanderers starting team to face Colchester United as midfield in the spotlight

Bolton Wanderers are back in action tomorrow when they take on Colchester United in League Two.

Ian Evatt's side take on the U's at the University of Bolton Stadium on Good Friday aiming to extend an unbeaten run which currently stands at 13 matches.

Wanderers have won 11 games in that sequence and it has taken them from 19th in the table to outside the automatic promotion places on goal difference alone.

Bolton take on a Colchester side which is at the other end of the table and only four points above the relegation zone.

Hayden Mullins is in temporary charge of the Essex side for the remainder of the season, after succeeding Wayne Brown.

And Evatt is expecting the toughest game of their current run, and is a message he has passed on to his players.

He said: "Everyone expects us to win, there’s a different kind of pressure.

"Colchester are actually playing a lot better than the results suggest. They’ve got some good attacking players, good attacking weapons and they can counter attack fast, so we have to make sure we’re reliable in possession and we limit transitions.

"Give them the respect they deserve, they are fighting for their lives, they’ve got some good players, they were in the play-offs last year and a lot of them players got to the play-offs last season, so they’re not a bad team.

"They’ve just not had the right results of late but everyone comes here and raises their game, lifts their game, especially now we’ve got even more of a target on our back with how we’re performing."

Wanderers played an extra midfield player last weekend away from home against Forest Green Rovers in the form of George Thomason, something that Bolton will look to do away from the UniBol at times.

Evatt said: "I look and do a lot of work on every opposition, we all do, the coaching team and my analyst Lewis, Peter the assistant, we all watch multiple games of the opposition before we play them and we come up with a plan to counter that opposition.

"Sometimes it might be the extra midfield player. We might have to away from home respect the opposition and go an extra midfield player.

"That was definitely the case on Saturday."

With Wanderers being at home tomorrow and expecting to have more of the ball, it may not be the case that an extra midfield player is needed.

Lloyd Isgrove dropped to the bench for Thomason at the New Lawn and it could be that the former Swindon Town man slots back into the trio of attacking players in behind striker Eoin Doyle, with Marcus Maddison, Arthur Gnahoua and Zack Elbouzedi also options.

Across the rest of the team, no other changes are anticipated.

Predicted Bolton Wanderers starting team to take on Colchester United : Gilks; Jones, Santos, Baptiste, John; Lee, Williams; Isgrove, Delfouneso, Afolayan; Doyle.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.