PAST experience has taught Steven Schumacher that setting points targets for promotion can be a risky business.
The Wanderers boss reasoned last week that “16 or 17” points should be enough to secure a top six spot, but he admits that the goalposts can still be moved.
Schumacher spent the tail-end of two seasons in League One gunning for promotion, first via the play-offs in 2021/22, then the automatics the following year.
In both cases the predicted number of points needed to achieve the target changed dramatically in the final weeks, and that is why he won’t be looking too far ahead.
“It can drive you mad,” he told The Bolton News. “Like I say, no-one would have predicted that when we got 80 points at Plymouth, that it wasn’t going to be enough for the play-offs.
“We got told all season it's 75 points and 80 wasn't enough, we finished seventh.
“You can't look too much into it. Again, when we won the league, everyone said 95 points is enough to win the league, and it took 101, so it's just one of them things.
“You've just got to get on with it and keep your head down, and keep focused on the next game, see what happens.”
Nevertheless, Schumacher looks back on his last nine games and feels the points tally and performance levels have been encouraging.
Though Bolton will be looking to avoid a third successive league defeat – something which hasn’t happened for three years – the head coach remains pleased with what his players have produced, and feels they are on the right track.
“We had a good meeting this morning and I said to them that the three games that we've lost in the league, you could argue all three of them we probably didn't deserve to lose,” he added.
“I don't think there's been a game yet where we've gone out there and we've been poor for the whole game.
“There are times when you can’t got going, and occasionally you have games like that where you're just flat as a team, but we haven't really seen that since we have been in here.
“We have picked up 16 points and probably let a few slip as well that we didn't necessarily need to, so that gives us confidence in the next nine games.
“If we can get to that performance level again, then we've got the players in the squad that can get the points that we're going to need. Whatever it takes, we'll try and achieve it.”
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