Ian Evatt issues rallying cry ahead of Bolton Wanderers’ trip to Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic ran out 4-0 winners in the first West Midlands derby of the season and Bolton Wanderers will be seeking revenge at the DW Stadium on Saturday.

Ian Evatt’s men have made huge strides of progress since the turn of the year and will pose a much more threatening test to Leam Richardson’s Latics than they did in mid October.

Evatt issued a rallying cry to his players and supporters when he spoke to The Bolton News.

He said: “Take away the rivalry and the local derby.

“It is a benchmark for us at the moment because they are in the automatic promotion positions and that is where we want to get to.

“It is a good marker of how far we have come since January, a great test and no excuses this time.

“We have got a fully fit squad more or less, lots of good players and we will be ready.

“We have worked really well this week.

“We have tweaked one or two things, looking at ways we can hurt them, and we will see come Saturday.”

Wigan are favourites to win the League One title because of their watertight defence, there is an argument that Bolton are the more free-flowing attacking side and it will be fascinating to see how this one plays out with bragging rights on the line.

The Verdict

Evatt is box office with the media and the build-up to this derby game has been no different.

If Bolton can take a positive result on Saturday, it will build a lot of belief that they can kick on towards a promotion push next season.

The Trotters’ January business has seen a steep upturn in results and they will be confident of improving on their performance in the reverse fixture.

In a league table generated over the last 15 games for every team in the division, Bolton sit third with 32 points where Wigan are fifth with 31, it is a far