TENSIONS were high as 2024 wound down to a close and there was no sign in sight of a consistent run of form for Wanderers.
For every upbeat, there was a low, for every positive, a negative. And since the twin defeats to Stockport County and Wigan Athletic, there was clearly an appetite for a change in manager among a vast majority of supporters.
Sharon Brittan had declared the board’s “loyal support” to the man who had been in charge of the team for just over four years and appealed for calm and logic to be applied.
Wanderers were, at the time, within touching distance of the play-offs and looking towards the upcoming transfer window with some degree of anticipation.
Virtually every game or press conference threw up some form of flashpoint, however, as Evatt tried to defend himself against the barrage of criticism. On one such occasion, the day before a pre-Christmas Friday night game at Wycombe, he took aim at BBC Radio Manchester after feeling a social media post from the station had tried to paint him in a bad light with supporters.
The quote: “It’s great I’ve got the backing of the people that matter” was posted above a short clip of an interview discussing Ms Brittan’s statement and the insistence that he did not take the chairman’s support for granted.
It was a sign of the high emotion at the time that it became a talking point. And though the BBC “robustly denied” manipulating what was said, they also aired his riposte in full.
Evatt had seen his side battle for a point at Wycombe despite missing a number of players through injury and suspension and might have looked ahead to the festive schedule with some hope his team could break back into the top six.
Christmas wasn’t especially kind, however, and after appealing for a positive atmosphere on Boxing Day against Barnsley, Bolton found a way of throwing away a 1-0 half-time lead to lose the game 2-1.
“We can’t keep letting ourselves down or else things will change, of course they will,” Evatt bemoaned, as yet another question on his job stability was fired in the post-match press conference.
Parts one to three
Jay Matete supplied a bit of respite with two smart goals in a 3-0 win at home to 10-man Lincoln, who had Ethan Erhahon sent off as the two teams went back down the tunnel for half time. But back the pendulum came on New Year’s Day, as Wanderers were sucker-punched by Mansfield Town in a depressingly familiar tale of superior possession and inferior ideas around the penalty area.
Defensive errors had again been Bolton’s undoing. The clean sheet mentality that had once been worn as a badge of pride had long since disappeared with Ricardo Santos – Evatt’s most loyal and trusted centre-half – now back in the firing line.
The big defender had struggled with injury at the tail end of the previous season, something which had been ruthlessly exposed at Wembley by Oxford United. His form issues spilled over and led to Evatt’s decision to give George Thomason the captaincy, a move which briefly looked to have done the trick. But here, with January in its infancy, something was clearly not right.
Aaron Morley was recalled from Wycombe at the start of the loan window, where he had played a major role in making the Chairboys genuine automatic promotion contenders.
Evatt had lost faith with the midfielder midway through last season, and when he departed for Buckinghamshire in August few genuinely thought he could make a return under his stewardship. Though Wycombe did try and loan him back they never got close to Bolton’s valuation – reported to be £500,000 – and so a few days after netting a winning goal at Exeter in a blue shirt, he was back for Bolton at the same ground; incredibly, his goal won the day again.
There was something fresh about Morley when he arrived back in town. His jobs" target="_blank">work-rate off the ball had improved and his passing range – which had never been in doubt – suddenly opened the pitch up again. It also served to highlight the cloud of pressure that many of his team-mates had been labouring under.
Rotherham United had arguably under-performed more than Bolton during the first half of the campaign but they chose an inopportune time to click into gear, steamrolling Evatt’s side at the New York Stadium on January 11, and sparking more calls for the manager’s head.
“It’s my fault, it’s my fault,” he snapped, when asked about a torrent of ‘Evatt Out’ chants
“It’s not, it’s a collective. And the players have to take responsibility as well.
“I don’t send my players out to play and perform and show that lack of fight, courage and energy.
“I think it’s time I called them out because it’s me that gets it all. I can take it all but sooner or later they have to take some responsibility.”
The issue of responsibility was a thorny one – and managers rarely win that particular battle.
A win at Lincoln in the Vertu Trophy cheered up practically nobody and when that was followed by two dropped points and yet more controversy at home to struggling Cambridge United, the situation looked untenable.
Visiting cameras had picked up the Bolton boss swearing on his way down the tunnel at half time – seemingly an angry exchange with one of his own supporters. And though Evatt protested otherwise, it was another nail in the proverbial coffin.
Shelling out £1.2milion to sign attacking midfielder Joel Randall from Peterborough United would ordinarily be something done by a manager in a stable position. Likewise, loaning Alex Murphy, another summer target from Newcastle United, was not something usually done by a club anticipating change.
But neither would spend much time with the manager who recruited them, and though Randall scored in defeat against Charlton Athletic, Evatt had run out of road.
Bolton’s board had taken a logical view in backing their manager to that stage but after dropping three points off the top six to ninth spot, the sums no longer added up. This was especially true of the thousands of empty seats which were starting to appear as season ticket holders gave a clear vote of no confidence. It is understood that the ‘actual’ attendance for the Charlton game had fallen to around 8,500.
Like many things in football, however, the manager’s departure had a grey area. Evatt had previously offered to fall on his sword on at least one occasion in response to a poor run, and his comments later in the season suggest he – and not the board – had the final say.
Mutual agreement or not, with time running out in the transfer window, the next decision would be a crucial one for Wanderers and their ownership group, they just needed somebody trustworthy to hold the fort.
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