It was time to put the woollies on as we battled the bitterly cold Storm Arwen to get to the Unibol stadium to watch the beleaguered Wanderers take on the Robins from Cheltenham and battle against our own injury storm.

There was good news waiting for us in the Harvester as Doombar is back on the agenda, albeit in bottles and we could resume our deliberations. The main talk was about how we could get ourselves fit and await the call from Ian Evatt to help the Wanderers through this unprecedented injury crisis.

Talk of being down to bare bones and making full use of our squad have real meaning at the moment. Having said that, everyone was upbeat after the comprehensive demolition of Doncaster in mid-week and there was hope that we could get a result against the in-form Cheltenham.

As expected, the team picked itself from who was fit enough with a welcome first league start for Xavier Ameachi.

But we fought back and got a deserved equaliser through Xavier Amaechi’s scrambled effort, only to be undone once again on the stroke of half-time. In the second half, we got on top and equalised through Elias Kachunga’s superb shot and might have gone ahead through Ricardo Santos, but for a tight-looking offside call. Cheltenham came back at us in what turned out to be a very good, competitive match with honours even in the end.

It really is a case of all hands to the pumps at Bolton these days with Ian Evatt having to balance performances and results against the risk of more injuries. This is no easy task, but everyone seems to be rolling their sleeves up and committing to the cause.

The hope is that we can keep the points coming in through December until we start getting some players back in January and we can use the transfer window to strengthen our squad. Players like George Thomason and Liam Gordon are being given the chance to establish themselves and give Ian Evatt something to think about. Who knows but one of the youngsters on the bench recently might seize their opportunity?