Wanderers cannot allow their midweek defeat at Cheltenham to destabilise an excellent start to the season, warned manager Ian Evatt.

The Whites travel to Forest Green Rovers this afternoon looking to put a poor performance behind them and continue their chase for a top six spot in League One.

Evatt said last week that away form would define his team’s season and conceded that other clubs would be taking notes on the way Bolton struggled to create on Tuesday night.

But he is confident that his players can perform in the less glamorous venues up and down the land, provided they use the information they are given on the training ground.

“We train in really tight areas quite a lot to get used to feeling pressure, understanding where the space is in tight areas, and how to expose it,” he told The Bolton News.

“We came up with a good gameplan at Cheltenham and the space was exactly where we thought it would be, we just didn’t utilise it enough.

“Sometimes I think the players have to take on that information and use it, and let’s be fair, they have been doing. It had been the best start for some time.

“We shouldn’t get wobbled by that result. We need to use it and learn from it.

“You can’t dip under your maximum, even by one per cent. I think that performance was a lot more than one percent but if you do go below those standards at this level of football then you get beat.

“We are man enough to own it, accept it, and know we have to be better at Forest Green.”

Today’s game will the first time Wanderers have played at the New Lawn with supporters present, their previous trip in late March 2020 took place behind closed doors but was also screen on Sky Sports.

Evatt’s team was, at the time, gunning for promotion from League Two, a target they achieved a few weeks later with victory at Crawley on the final day of the season.

Forest Green followed Bolton up the next year but have struggled over the first 11 games, winning just two, and currently sit third bottom of the table.

Wanderers hope that their second game in Gloucestershire this week will run more smoothly.

“They are adjusting to this division but have some good footballers,” Evatt said. “Things were very different the last time we were down there but it is nice to put things into context on how far we have come.

“I remember the game well, it was on TV and at a really important stage of the season. The pressure was on us and we found a way to win.

“A lot has happened for both clubs since then but it is the same principle for us. We always respect the opposition, we always come up with a gameplan. I want us to execute that gameplan a lot better than we did on Tuesday night.”