Bolton boss admits it's the wrong time to play Peterborough United, but he's backing his team to get another positive result

The form of Posh since Darren Ferguson returned to the club and his own team’s availability crisis led to Evatt’s comments, but he’s still backing the Trotters to gain a positive result in a big game on a big day for the division as eight of the top 10 are playing each other.

As well as the match beteen seventh-placed Posh and fifth-placed Bolton, Ipswich (3rd) host Sheffield Wednesday (1st), Wycombe (8th) entertain Derby (4th) and Plymouth (2nd) are at home to Portsmouth (10th).

Wanderers will be without the suspended Conor Bradley and Elias Kachunga, along with injured George Thomason (knee), MJ Williams (knee), Jack Iredale (knee), Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (ankle), George Johnston (ankle) and Dan Nlundulu (hamstring) against Posh.

“The players we pick at Peterborough will need to do the job at hand to the best of their ability and if they do it, I think we can get the right result,” Evatt told the Bolton News.

“But I don’t think we could have come across Peterborough at a more difficult time.

“Winning is certainly more important to them than us because we have already put ourselves in a good position with points on the board and a little bit of a cushion.

“But having said that it is almost a six-point swing and we want to go there and give it our best shot.

“There are other teams playing each other in the top six and top eight, so there’s a chance to make up some ground on the teams above too.”

Wanderers could go third with victory, depending on results elsewhere, and have not given up on the prospect of catching Plymouth Argyle or Sheffield Wednesday in the top two places with 16 games remaining.

Evatt wants nothing but focus from his players, who have taken more points in 2023 than any other team in the league.

“We are still a long way from the top two spots and I think realistically for us to get to those spots we have to win the majority of our remaining games and to do that we need to perform well week-in, week-out, but I have said all along that this group is capable of doing that,” Evatt added.

“We know how tough it will be at Peterborough, but we are looking forward to the game.

“We have to remember that we are in a good run of form too. We are playing good football and we need to go and replicate that this weekend.”

Bolton will be skippered by former Posh defender Ricardo Santos.