IAN Evatt hopes he will avoid a meeting with former club Blackpool next season, as they bid for play-off glory.

The Tangerines take on Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium in the first leg of the semi-final tonight looking to get back into the Championship for the first time since 2015.

Evatt made more than 250 appearances for Blackpool in three different divisions and though a return to Bloomfield Road would be more than welcome, he would rather see his old side snatch the remaining promotion place ahead of Oxford, Sunderland and Lincoln.

“First and foremost I hope they get promoted because I want that for them,” he said. “If not, it’s great my team will be able to go there and play against them.

“There are big clubs, it’s a big division, but bring it on.

“Bolton Wanderers deserve to be a part of big games. That is what all the hard work is for, to play, to manage and to see a full house in those games.”

Evatt believes his side can build on last season’s promotion success – but the Bolton boss has also targeted significant areas of improvement.

Wanderers returned to pre-season training weeks before many of their rivals in League Two last year but problems with recruitment and restrictive Covid-19 guidelines made life tough as Evatt tried to bed down a new playing style with small groups of players.

This year the Bolton boss feels he has a core of players under contract which will make the process an easier one.

“We have to improve and we will because we have got a solid foundation to build from,” he said. “The players are used to training and playing how I want them to play.

“There are loads of finer details we can go into, scoring more goals for one. But it all comes from having something to improve from.

“We didn’t have that last season, we have now got it.

“Now we have to see how we can tweak things and what personnel we can get in certain areas to get better.”