A MUCH-CHANGED Wanderers line-up will be sent out at Rochdale tonight on a recovery mission.

Ian Evatt will switch his squad around at Spotland to give ample opportunity for those not involved at Portsmouth to stake a claim for a starting spot against Stockport County this Sunday in the FA Cup.

The likes of Liam Gordon, Matt Gilks, Harry Brockbank, Josh Sheehan, George Thomason and Alex Baptiste are poised to start.

And those players will also be tasked with restoring some of the positive momentum lost during a difficult October and ensure those fans heading to the UniBol this weekend have something brighter to talk about.

Evatt wants to win the Papa John’s Trophy, which offers prize money of more than £250,000 for a club which reaches the Wembley final, and a point should be enough to guarantee a spot in the knockout rounds.

But in the short-term he wants a result to steady shaken nerves and quieten the grumbles of discontent which have emerged in recent weeks.

“I want to take this club to Wembley, to win a competition, whether that’s the Papa John’s Trophy, the League Cup or the FA Cup – and right at this moment in time, this one looks the most likely,” he told The Bolton News.

“Rochdale are a good team, I have seen a fair bit of them, and they seem well-coached.

“They play the way Rochdale have played for many years now.

“In my view we have to win – but for us; we want a result for us. We will be going there to rebuild confidence and play with a smile on our face again.

“Yes, we have done some hard work in this competition and winning two games would probably see us through, but we want to do it by winning all three.”

Dale are four games unbeaten under ex-Middlesbrough defender Robbie Stockdale, who says he will be naming a strong senior team with the club’s Under-18s in action against Guiseley in the FA Youth Cup.

Jim McNulty, Josh Andrews and Eoghan O’Connell will miss the final group tie through injury, and though any one of the four teams in the group can still qualify, Stockdale says his team have little option but to go for a the win.

“It’s a tough game against a team obviously in a higher division,” he said.

“As always we’ll be giving minutes to the players who need them and we will be very competitive. The players we will pick will be strong and it is up to them to take advantage of the minutes they get and give me major problems going into the game at the weekend.

“But first and foremost it is about the performance and if we can get that then hopefully the result will follow it.

“If we don’t win the game it makes no difference what the happens elsewhere, so try and win the game and see where it takes us. A positive frame of mind, hopefully a good performance because I feel like we have built on them over the last couple of games, and carry on that winning feeling.”