Bolton Wanderers B team update with trial game held & talent catches eye as recruitment planned

Ian Evatt said three or four players 'took the eye' for Bolton Wanderers that the League One side have had with them with week to help recruit for the club's upcoming B team.

Wanderers have chosen to develop their pathway to the first team and build upon the reserves they have adopted this season with a B team which is in the process of being established.

The club's current reserves team has competed in the EFL's Central League and been run by first-team coach Sam Hird, giving younger players a competitive division to play in and allow first-team players some minutes as they make returns from injury.

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But this will be developed for next season at the gap between the youth groups at Wanderers and the first-team. Wanderers have opted to go down the B team route, which the likes of Brentford, Huddersfield Town and Southampton have all gone down and not an under-23s set-up at this moment in time.

A B team manager is also being appointed as work progresses on the new set-up and, to help add bodies to swell the ranks of the new side, several trial fixtures will be held, Wanderers boss Ian Evatt has said.

The first of these took place on Thursday afternoon at the club's Lostock training ground behind closed doors, with a mixture of players from non-league and also Premier League Category One academies.

Evatt said some caught the eye and things will progress in the days and weeks to come as the Bolton boss revealed Wanderers jhave an open mind in terms of recruitment for this team.

Though a new experience for the Wanderers boss, he wants the second string to mirror the first team as part of a strategy designed to help