MARK Beevers hopes the old heads can keep a lid on rising expectations in the Wanderers camp this season.

Though Whites fans have dared to dream after a 100 per cent start, the big centre half has been a voice of caution from the dressing room.

Beevers said last week he wanted the club’s promotion prospects to be judged “on a cold Tuesday night in January” but would be happy to see the good times roll until then.

The back four named against Fleetwood Town of Beevers, Lewis Buxton, Dean Moxey and David Wheater boasted nearly 1,500 professional games between them and that knowhow, claims the Barnsley-born defender, could be vital for Phil Parkinson’s side when the going gets tough.

“Experience is a key factor in a successful team, I think. You have to have players who have been there and got a couple of T-shirts,” he told The Bolton News.

“It’s not as if we have players who’ve done it all but we have certainly got a few who have played games at this level, played a lot of football. Those boys can be a massive advantage sometimes.

“People like Dean Moxey, myself, David Wheater and Lewis Buxton – plus a few that haven’t been playing just recently – are those types.

“There is a good balance in this squad. It’s our job to keep things steady, not to let anyone get carried away with themselves, and to be fair to the lads, they have been great so far.”

Beevers helped Millwall get to the play-offs last season and has also enjoyed success with Sheffield Wednesday at this level of the game.

He is prepared for the long slog but felt optimistic about Wanderers’ chances from the moment he stepped on board the plane heading for Sweden in pre-season.

“We’ve got off to a great start and I’ve felt the lads gelled well from pre-season – you could tell there was a different mood right there,” he said. “Anyone can see we’ve got a good group of players it was just a case of whether we could gel. And I think we have.

“No-one is getting ahead of ourselves and there’s another tough one to come at Charlton away. I was in League One last year and we won quite a few away games at Millwall but at the moment we’re only four games into a 46-game season, so no-one is kidding themselves that there are not more difficult times to come.

“At times we’ll have to dig deep but we showed at Wimbledon and Bristol in the last couple of games that we’re well capable of doing that.”

Relegation from the Championship and all the financial woes that went with it looked like some pretty heavy baggage to shift in just a couple of months, but Beevers feels progress is being made.

“I didn’t experience last year but I’ve certainly been involved with teams when things haven’t gone right and it’s a hard place to work,” he said.

“We got a few new faces in over the summer and the manager demanded that we don’t sulk or look back at what might have been, he wants us to look forward and prove why we should be back in the Championship.

“I think we did through pre-season and it’s gone into our performances in the season as well.”

Whereas Wanderers have been favourites in their last few games, they come up against a Charlton side this afternoon at The Valley which has won its last two games and have been among the biggest spenders in League One over the summer window so far.

“If you are another club in this league and you see Bolton, it’s one of the ones you look for on the fixture list,” Beevers said. “We have to accept that clubs are going to try and up the ante a bit.

“It’s so far so good.

“But Charlton are quite similar. They’ll fancy their chances of going up .”