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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

Predicted Bolton Wanderers starting team to take on Harrogate Town as changes pondered

Bolton Wanderers are back on home soil tomorrow when the Whites take on Harrogate Town.

Ian Evatt's side return to the University of Bolton Stadium on Saturday to take on the Sulphurites in League Two.

Wanderers are seeking to return to winning ways after the club's unbeaten run came to an end on Easter Monday on the road against Newport County.

But the 14 game unbeaten sequence has taken Evatt's side to just outside the automatic promotion places on goal difference alone at present, just behind Tranmere Rovers.

And they will be seeking to do the double over Simon Weaver's side when the Yorkshire outfit head to the UniBol this weekend.

With seven games to go in the promotion run-in for Wanderers in a short space of time and the different challenges posed, Bolton manager Evatt has hinted at making changes to his team in the weeks to come.

He said: "I think the games we’ve got, each one poses a different challenge and Saturday will have a completely different challenge to what we’ll have on Salford at Tuesday night.

"What team I think we need to pick for certain types of games and that’ll be a shared responsibility with the group. We’ve got a core set of players which we all believe in and it’ll be horses for courses and that’s an old cliche but it has to be the way.

"At home I think we’re going to pose and look at different problems to what we would away from home. Certainly with your Salfords, your Grimsbys, your Morecambes who have all got something to play for, they will no doubt take the game to us and the spaces will be there for us to play our fluid and natural game.

"At home, your Harrogates, possibly your Carlisles depending how they keep going on, it could be a completely different outlook where we’re seeing teams camping, bank up, spoil games, play for set pieces, play for long throws and we have to find solutions to that and I think team selection will vary on what I think the solutions will be for each game.”

In terms of the defence and goalkeeper, the current back four and Matt Gilks are unlikely to change, with the rearguard poised to line up as Gethin Jones, Ricardo Almeida Santos, Alex Baptiste and Declan John.

In central midfield, Kieran Lee and MJ Williams are likely to continue.

Away from home, Evatt has also played young midfielder George Thomason of late against Forest Green Rovers and against Newport.

Though the youngster has impressed, the nature of the home clash against Harrogate might better suit another line-up.

It could mean that Oladapo Afolayan and Marcus Maddison, both of whom came off the bench against Newport, could be in line to start against the Yorkshire outfit.

Zack Elbouzedi also came off the bench against the Exiles and looked good, providing competition to the likes of Nathan Delfouneso and Lloyd Isgrove in the forward areas behind top scorer Eoin Doyle.

Predicted Bolton Wanderers starting team against Harrogate Town: Gilks; Jones, Santos, Baptiste, John; Lee, Williams; Maddison, Delfouneso, Afolayan; Doyle.

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