Bolton aim for play-off hopes set as number of games Wanderers can afford to not win revealed

Wanderers suffered defeat at the hands of MK Dons over the weekend

View Image

Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt feels his side can only have three more games where they fail to pick up three points this season if they are to keep their hopes of reaching the League One play-offs alive.

Wanderers ended February on a loss with a 2-0 defeat on the road against MK Dons, as Mo Eisa put the hosts ahead in a first half where for most of it, Wanderers were second best in the encounter at Stadium MK.

Amadou Bakayoko struck the bar with a powerful header from Declan John's corner before the break, before skipper Ricardo Santos headed over from another delivery in the second half as Bolton improved and sought to equalise.

READ MORE: Ex-West Ham striker's verdict on Bolton Wanderers handball shout for MK Dons opening goal

But the hosts got their second goal when James Trafford's pass out from the back was pounced upon by Kaine Kesler Hayden and Scott Twine's deflected effort went in, as Wanderers now sit seven points from the play-off places.

Wanderers have 11 matches left to go this season and Evatt believes his side can only not pick up three points a maximum of three more games if they are to harbour hopes of reaching the top six.

But the Wanderers boss believes there is no need for overreaction to the loss as Bolton have won eight of their last 11 games and that things are not yet over.

And even if Wanderers have left their charge for the play-offs too late, they remain in a really good place generally.

He said: "It’s not over for us but it’s made it really, really more difficult and our window of slipping up has really got smaller and slimmer so we know what we have to do. It hasn’t changed.

"We’ve just lost one of our games that we could not winning. We’ve only got in my opinion three more of those, so we know what we have to do.

“I think there’s loads more to come. I think there’s lots of improvements to come. There’s lots of new players in there and physically, it’s been really challenging this month.

"Whether we’ve left it too late this season or not, time will tell, but I think we’re in a really good place. I think there’s in general lots of positivity and we can’t over react to defeats like this.

"We’ve been on a great run. It’s still not over, we’ll fight until the very end to make sure we give ourselves a chance, but the importance of the games coming up now are huge, a bit like after the Burton game with the two home games.

"It’s the same thing again and we have to make sure we win on Saturday (vs Gillingham) and bounce back.”