STEVEN Schumacher insists there were no hard feelings between himself and the players hooked before half-time at Peterborough on Saturday.
The Bolton boss took the unusual step of replacing Josh Sheehan and Thierry Gale a few minutes BEFORE the whistle, also exchanging Ethan Erhahon for Xavier Simons during the interval.
The decision – which Schumacher explained after the match was entirely tactical – but did prompt criticism from elements of the fanbase after the 3-1 defeat.
Wanderers look to bounce back in the Vertu Trophy tonight, welcoming Port Vale to the Toughsheet and looking to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition for the third season in a row.
And the head coach expects no adverse reaction from Sheehan or Gale if they are called upon.
“I spoke to Josh this morning it's never easy making subs before half-time,” he told The Bolton News. “It was a shape thing. I could have taken both of my midfield players off, I could have taken more than two players off, but I just felt like I had to do something at that time to sort of not go 2-0 down.
“Now in hindsight could I have waited until half-time? Probably. But if we'd have conceded in those three or four minutes then I'd have kicked myself, so I've got to make those calls at that time. And how people feel and how it looks is sort of secondary really.
“It's trying to get what I think is best for the team. But Josh is fine, he and Thierry are fine, they both trained well this morning, and it's gone.
“I'm this type of manager that if you have a bad performance or whatever it's never personal. It is what it is, we address it, you hold your hands up and say we've got things right or wrong and we move on.”
Schumacher could turn to right-back Josh Dacres-Cogley tonight despite speculation that he is being lined-up for a move to League One rivals Stockport County.
The defender has not featured since the heavy FA Cup defeat at Swindon Town last month and has been hotly tipped to follow Will Forrester and Victor Adeboyejo out of the door in the transfer window.
“I haven’t got a lot to say out it,” Schumacher said of the reports linking Dacres-Cogley with a move to Edgeley Park. “I don’t like to do that too often and it’s obviously not by business right now.
“What I will say about Josh is he's our player. And I know he hasn't played loads of games lately, but he has made 12 or 13 appearances, I think, and it's done really well. So, he's our player right now and not much more to say.”
Schumacher remains relaxed about incoming transfers, insisting that the club has not been forced into a rethink because of their dip in form over December and early January.
He added; “I'm not just going to react just because of recent results, as I said, because beforehand our results were good,” he said. “We were on a really good run before the Wycombe game.
“I'm not just going to overreact, but even before that, before the fixtures over the Christmas period, we had highlighted areas of the squad that we think we need to strengthen in and that hasn't changed.”
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