LEAGUE One may appear as open a contest as it has been in many years – but Steven Schumacher insists Wanderers will have to fight tooth and nail to escape the division.
Six points currently cover the top seven clubs, with Bolton hosting current leaders Cardiff City at the Toughsheet on Saturday lunchtime.
Schumacher has been impressed with the starts made by unfancied Stevenage and recently promoted Bradford City, both of whom have made the early pace.
After vanquishing one of the promotion favourites Huddersfield in their last outing, Wanderers could haul themselves to within striking distance of the top six with the right result at the weekend.
Reflecting on the first quarter of the season, Schumacher feels his side still need to find some consistency in results to push their cause.
“I think it has been quite open, and it has been proved already in the opening weeks that anyone genuinely can beat anyone,” he told The Bolton News. “I think it’s fair to say Stevenage have been excellent.
“I listened to Alex Revell the other day on the radio speaking about what they have got, a great team spirit, really good people behind the scenes, and they have made an excellent start to the season.
“Then you’ve got Bradford City who came up from League Two and have had that momentum behind them, carrying all that excitement that they had from last season into this one.
“Cardiff have been really strong. They have been consistent, went a lot of games without conceding a goal, and they have got a really talented squad, so it’s no surprise to see them up there and competing.
“Outside of those teams everyone else has played in fits and starts so far, and I’d put us into that category. It has been consistently inconsistent.
“I do think teams like Huddersfield will be up there at the end because they spent big on players over the summer.
“But whether it stays this way I don’t know. I remember winning the league with Plymouth and everyone saying we wouldn’t last the course, they’ll fall off, they have got a bottom-half budget. And we won it against two real heavyweights in Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday, so it can happen. There’s your proof.
“It’s up to us, teams chasing a Stevenage or a Bradford to start putting back-to-back wins together and closing the gap because we won’t be up there unless we do. It will all boil down to consistency in the end and we know we have got some work to do on that front.”
Wanderers remain one of the bookmakers’ favourites and after five years in League One, the demand from supporters to escape this division is higher than ever.
Schumacher is careful to avoid any sense of entitlement creeping in, however, and insists the pressure to perform will not affect his approach.
“It isn’t an added strain for me, it’s why you come to a club like Bolton, it’s what you expect,” he said.
“I just try and prepare for every game as thoroughly as possible, do everything I can do to make sure my players are prepared when they go out there.
“I don’t go into games thinking I have to do anything different because of the size of the club or prepare any differently for a Huddersfield or a Cardiff City than I would for anyone else.
“You saw in the two away games at Northampton and Burton, we didn’t beat teams that people would consider smaller clubs. It just doesn’t work like that.
“Bolton Wanderers is a big club and we have got a fantastic fanbase and all that but unless you prepare properly in every single game and do what’s right in every single game it doesn’t mean anything because you won’t be ready.”
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