Bolton Wanderers are risking further League One frustration with fresh Ian Evatt stance | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers have decided to stick with manager Ian Evatt, despite his critique of supporters in the aftermath of another derby day defeat.

Bolton Wanderers have issued a club statement in which they have decided to publicly back manager Ian Evatt to turn things around at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, but it is too little too late for many supporters.

Many, if not the majority, of Bolton supporters have now turned against Evatt and want to see a change in the dugout as Wanderers continue to drift away from the top two and the automatic promotion spots, as well as the top six, in League One.

Chairman Sharon Brittan has said Evatt has the support of the ‘entire club’, which will sting Bolton supporters who will now feel alienated by the hierarchy, as well as their manager.

Results have been poor and performances have been worse, but it is the communication of the club and the manager himself that will hurt and frustrate fans more – and worsen what is already becoming a toxic situation in Lancashire.

Aside from about ten months that crossed the end of the 2020/21 and start of the 2021/22 campaigns, Evatt has been wedded to his three-at-the-back system that hasn't produced the results and League One promotion that have been expected.

Even when Evatt himself said they needed to be more flexible over the summer and tweaked to a 3-4-2-1 rather than a 3-5-2 at the start of this season, he quickly reverted and said it was because they didn't need to change too much.

Bolton are doing the same things over and over. Continuing to do so will bring about the same results that keep happening over and over again. Promotion to the second-tier seems as far away as it ever has during Evatt's tenure.

Ian Evatt's drifting relationship with Bolton fans

In his post-match interviews after Bolton suffered yet another defeat to local rivals Wigan Athletic at the weekend, Evatt was vehemently defensive of himself when posed a question by Jack Dearden whether he was the right man to take the club forward.

Describing and dismissing the notion of thinking otherwise as ‘disrespectful’ riled Wanderers supporters and did show a lack of humility, which is at odds with what Bolton have actually achieved during his tenure.

There is a fair argument to suggest that if Evatt was willing to accept culpability for Bolton failing this season, as they did last season when they collapsed towards the end of the campaign to miss out on the top two and then again in the play-off final against Oxford United, then Wanderers supporters would be more forgiving.

Bolton are three games away from another trip to Wembley Stadium in the EFL Trophy and are well in the hunt for a top six spot with games in hand, but performances have been below expectations and simply being ‘in the hunt’ for a top six spot is not good enough.

However, the obdurate dismissal that things are going wrong or have gone wrong has meant there is less patience from the fanbase and that level of arrogance leaves little confidence that things will improve because, it appears, the club and the manager do not believe things are going wrong enough to change – and, after a year of underperformance, it would appear the only way to improve would be the flexibility and willingness to tweak or change something.

Failing to finish in the top two was not enough for Evatt to go. Losing the play-off final to a team Bolton had beaten 5-0 two months earlier was not enough for Evatt to go. Four points from their opening five matches and a 4-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town at home was not enough for Evatt to go.

A 5-0 hammering at Stockport County wasn’t enough, and then a 2-0 loss at home to struggling Wigan, to make it 10-0 on aggregate to the Latics in their three trips to Bolton during Evatt’s tenure, is not enough for him to go.

The defeats to Stockport and Huddersfield showed just how far away Bolton are when it comes to big games against teams they want to compete against in the table. They have also failed to score against Birmingham City and Wrexham without ever looking likely.

It has been the case throughout the Evatt reign and was perhaps best shown last season when, despite finishing third, they managed just one win in ten games during the regular season against teams in the top six.

Bolton's big-game failings are clear

Evatt finally admitted that there may well be a mentality issue with his players in big games, with Bolton struggling to put in performances throughout his tenure on the big occasion, with the notable exception of the 2023 EFL Trophy final against Plymouth Argyle.

However, performances have been poor in pretty much every game this season. So, rather than accept it could well be a tactical issue, as would seem to be the case, Evatt once again shifted the blame; albeit inadvertently piling the blame onto himself because it is his job to ensure his players have the right mentality – something that doesn’t appear to have been grasped by the former Barrow boss.

Bolton have proven they cannot cope in big games, supported by the comments of their manager, so promotion via the play-offs seems impossible. Because of that, barring a miracle in terms of getting into the top two, the Trotters are set for a fifth successive League One season next year, and sixth outside the Championship, having only ever previously spent 11 of their 146 years outside the second-tier before the arrival of Evatt.

League One's top teams appear stronger than last season, but after finishing third, there has been a regression that has immensely frustrated Whites fans. Seeing two of the newly-promoted sides in the top six ahead of Bolton highlights how only a slight improvement, or even standing still, from last season would have seen a genuine challenge for automatic promotion.

It is now becoming a bit 'Groundhog Day' for Bolton fans and Evatt's comments can almost be copied and pasted from one big game defeat to another with little sign or encouragement of things changing.

The manager also criticised his players for failing to deal with the atmosphere at ten-man Cambridge United last month, though, too, in a game where only 5,266 people attended on a forgettable Tuesday evening. Perhaps there are different definitions of ‘big games’ for Evatt and everybody else.

The manager repeatedly mentions his achievements in charge of Bolton, but it would be fair to suggest that they are a footnote in the grand scheme of things when looking at the history of the club.

He took over in difficult circumstances but was given a relatively big budget to get Bolton out of League Two at the first attempt; something he managed despite Bolton actually being in a fourth-tier relegation battle as late as February.

Results and performances have been one thing, but launching yet another staunch defence of himself in the face of available evidence, both statistical and the eye test of loyal, hardworking supporters, has only gone further to strengthen the angst within the fanbase.

The time for many has been and gone and, if not now, then seemingly never with the former centre-back tied to the club in such an unusual manner and contracted until the summer of 2026.

Supporters were grateful to the board for saying something, but the unabashed backing of a manager that has underperformed and is underperforming ahead of a festive schedule against four teams in the top-half (beginning with a trip to the top of the league) is expected to see them even further away when the January window rolls around.

The January window didn't help Bolton's promotion hopes in each of the last two seasons, so a reliance on that also seems quite naive, with fans already viewing the campaign as a write-off before Christmas.

Backing Evatt at this point only fuels that.