Ian Evatt feels it is healthy Bolton Wanderers are training and playing on the edge to help bring winning results after feeling his team were 'too nice' earlier in the season.
Wanderers are in the midst of an unbeaten run of 13 matches which has taken them from 19th in League Two to outside the automatic promotion spots on goal difference alone.
The Trotters have win 11 games in that sequence of results and will be aiming to extend their run to 14 games tomorrow when they taken on Colchester United at the University of Bolton Stadium.
Having struggled for form in the earlier stages of the campaign, Evatt feels his side now understand that winning is a habit and cannot afford off days in their quest for promotion back to League One.
And he feels that his side were 'too nice' and did not master the 'dark arts' of the game in the earlier portion on the campaign, but are now making demands of one another to give themselves an edge both in training and in games.
It's something the Bolton boss is all for.
He said: "We were too nice, 100 per cent. You have seen this season with no supporters, empty stadia, appealing for fouls and free kicks has been highlighted. That side of the game, the dark arts, we have been very naïve throughout the season with all of that.
“The players understand now that winning is a habit. To win regularly you need to make those demands of each other and put your hand up to be counted. We can’t afford passengers.
“I said when the good run started that we don’t have time for off-days, we have lost that privilege because of how we started the season.
“We have got to play at full tilt for the rest of the season, and the players know that.
“It has just been repetitive messaging, they now understand that you can’t have off days. There isn’t a tap where you can turn it on or off, it needs to stay on all of the time.
“Once you get yourself into that mindset, you take it naturally into games.
“It might result in an injury in training, or some argy-bargy, fisticuffs, whatever else. But it is healthy, in my opinion. Players who play on the edge every single day will naturally take that into a match and give you the best chance of winning.
“It is great to see that the players are so demanding of each other and they are policing themselves now."
