IAN Evatt says he is not stressing out about the narrow margins in Wanderers' promotion challenge.

After another tense night defending a one-goal lead against Carlisle United, the Bolton boss insisted he was not stressing along with the supporters watching at home.

Wanderers face a trip to fourth-placed Morecambe on Saturday, and a side that has failed to score only six times in the league this season, and which trail the Whites by just a single point in the table.

Evatt’s men have won a division-high 16 games this season by a solitary goal and have only drawn a blank on nine occasions.

It all adds up to being a tight and tense affair at the Mazuma Stadium and though the Bolton boss would ideally like to see his side make it easier for themselves, he insists he is enjoying watching his team in action.

“It sounds crazy, I must be a sicko or something,” he said. “When teams are piling the ball into the box and you are defending a lead I think I’d have liked to be on the pitch and heading them all away myself. 

“We absolutely take pride in our defending, in our clean sheets, so hopefully we are saving that hatful of goals for a really important game.

“What we must make sure of, though, is that if the defenders have an off day - and that does happen - that our forwards, our midfielders, our wide players, need to step up and score.

“We didn’t do that at Grimsby and so the pressure became too great. But I am delighted we got another clean sheet to add to the collection and we know exactly what we have got to do now on Saturday against Morecambe.

“It is a big game but, you know, I am excited about it. I can’t wait to go there.”

Fortunes have also changed for the better at home. Wanderers will play their final match at the UniBol next Saturday against Exeter City and Evatt is delighted to see that results have improved so dramatically since the club’s difficult start to the season.

“It must just be because we changed dugouts! This is how it should be here and the pitch obviously helps us.

“Away from home it’s not really helping us too much so we have to find a way, but at home we can be fluid and we can play the way we want to play and I think you saw that for the first 60 minutes.”