‘Regroup and focus’ - Bolton Wanderers boss fires warning ahead of Bristol Rovers clash

Bristol Rovers are back in action this Friday against Bolton Wanderers away and their opponents are in confident mood, whilst the Pirates will be looking to bounce back from their 2-0 loss in the FA Cup to Boreham Wood last time out.

Joey Barton’s side have been in decent form in the league recently and will be eager to keep it going heading into December. The Gas have lost just once in their last nine outings in League One and have risen up to 15th in the table.

They are only six points off the play-offs and have the opportunity to further close that gap over the next few weeks. Bolton will be a tough test and are currently 5th after a decent start to the season.

Their boss, Ian Evatt, has told The Bolton News: “We had a better month in November, got ourselves back to where we want to be in the league table. We’ve picked up 10 points out of the last five league fixtures which is promotion form, two points a game, regardless of performance levels. I think we’re starting to get the confidence back. I can see that coming in spells.

“But I trust them all, we have to share the responsibility and they got the job done, which was the most important thing. Now we regroup and focus on Friday.”

He added: “The Christmas period is always a challenging and difficult period,” he said. “If you have a really good Christmas, you end up really kicking on, and if you don’t, you can get drawn back into the group and the pack.”

“We want to really focus all our attention on the Christmas period and December in particular. We’ll have a cup game thrown in as well (Wanderers are currently scheduled to face Manchester United’s Under-21s on December 16) and hopefully we can continue towards that Wembley goal.”

Bolton won their last league outing 2-1 away at Fleetwood Town and beat Evatt’s former club Barrow 3-2 in the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday night so go into their clash against Bristol Rovers in good spirits.