Charlton Athletic v Bolton Wanderers | Tuesday 28th September 2021 | Match Preview

Bolton have got a manager who has won promotion in each of his last two seasons. Evatt was the man who guided Barrow to the football league and took over Bolton in the summer of 2020. He completed the same feat for The Trotters, but this time taking them back to League One. Evatt has instilled a hard-working, honest, and winning mentality - a team who fight for each other and add a sprinkle of quality at the top end of the pitch. Because of this spirit and players knowing their job, it won't be often you'll see Bolton lose by many this season. An interesting stat to show what Evatt has brought to Bolton is they won 17 games last season by a single goal margin.

The 3 behind Doyle all bring something different to the table. Isgrove will be known to Adkins from his time at Southampton, although he didn't ever make the grade, he will want to tuck in and get close to Doyle. Sarcevic is a creative number 10 where much of Bolton's good play will go through him. We can't allow him space to pick a pass, and he has a goal in him too, proved mainly at League Two level, but his quality will show if given the time. Afolayan is Bolton's top scorer this season with 4 in 9, to describe him, he is a little bit like Blackett-Taylor - direct and will run at the full-back. We will have to be careful we don't leave our full-back's exposed 1v1 too often.

Bolton are a side who cross the ball a lot in this division, averaging 20 a game, interestingly we average 21. They pass the ball far more than we do, and with greater effect too. Stats show when they do go long, Bolton will only win the first and second ball on average around 15% of the time. One offensive pattern of play you will see often is most crosses will come down their right hand side with Jones overlapping and creating a situation where Isgrove tucks in, Sarcevic will float around the edge of the box, Afolayan at the back post and Sheehan will the player to arrive late, all supporting Doyle In the middle. With our defensive frailties, it's something that could cause us a lot of problems with players being dragged out of position and others not knowing who to pick up.  

Charlton Team News
The three subs made a huge difference for Charlton in the second half against Portsmouth, 2 scoring and one setting up the late equaliser. Adkins said Davison was unlucky not to start and Blackett-Taylor couldn't be risked given his injury history. With the two combining at the end, we should (hopefully) expect them both to make the starting XI on Tuesday. Clare came in for Arter and scored his first goal for the club, his driving through the middle with Gibley was something we haven't had this season. Arter struggled in the first half to get going, but did pull up with a muscular problem in the warm-up.

Gilbey and Souaré both completed their first 90 minutes of the season which is huge going forward. Two very good players at this level. With others all at different stages of fitness, a big squad to choose from, and Adkins not knowing what his best team is yet alongside the desperation to find that magic formula, we can expect more changes to occur on Tuesday night. A number of players were sitting in the stands on Saturday, all hoping to be involved against Bolton - Purrington, Gunter, Morgan, DJ, and Washington to name a few. As Cowley said, predicting what our team is going to be is difficult, it looks like picking them is a challenge too... 

Prediction
A better second half against Portsmouth papered over the horrendous performance of the first. Teams are not just playing better than us, they're often teaching us a lesson. With a lack of direction and identity, we have been poor. But the tide must turn at some point and with the late leveller on Saturday, it will have boosted the confidence even just a little going into Tuesday evening. Failure to get a win here could force the hand of the owner, but I don't think that will happen. The points stay in SE7.